


The Hardest Mission

by Alexlayer



Series: Angels [2]
Category: Kim Possible (Cartoon)
Genre: Community: Kim Possible Slash Haven, F/F, Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-05
Updated: 2013-09-30
Packaged: 2017-12-17 18:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 57,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/870503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexlayer/pseuds/Alexlayer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kim Possible has faced many challenges in her life. You’d think saving the world would count among the most difficult ones, but in reality, it was nothing compared to the challenge of raising Shego’s daughter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You’re a true redhead!

**Author's Note:**

> Agni Drago belongs to my best friend, Zearth (Also known as Tracuka and Festum)

“So, doc, what exactly are we looking for here?” Shego asked to her boss.

“Be quiet!” Drakken, blue skinned and criminal mad scientist replied to his sidekick, “I told you! We’re looking for the plans to this secret government weapon, and we gotta be _sneaky!_ ”

“Dunno why you won’t let _me_ handle it if that’s the case, but…?”

“How would you recognize which ones are the right ones!?”

“How about stealing all of them and problem solved?”

He nervously adjusted his lab-coat’s neckline, “Er… remind me of that next time!”

“There won’t be a next time, Drakken!” A new voice said just before the laboratory’s lights were turn on, revealing the intruders’ location and the presence of two now-college students. Drakken growled at the present of their arch-enemy.

“Kim Possible!!” He yelled at the redhead woman who in his opinion should look for a new hobby, preferably one that didn’t involve fighting crime.

“Dude, we _already_ know you know her name!” Ron Stoppable, Kim’s sidekick and best friend, voiced out, “Now, if only you could do the same with mine…”

“And if only you could perhaps pace yourselves, I mean, seriously, it’s summer holidays! Can’t we ever get some vacations from you guys?”

“Yeah, yeah, yadda-yadda,” Shego interrupted, stepping forward for what they all knew that was coming, though she took a moment to look around before starting with what by now was tradition, “She’s not here, is she?”

Kim’s confident look suddenly changed into an irritated one, “I’m SO grounding her if she’s here!”

“Oh, good, now that that’s out of the way…”

The green woman’s hands lit up with emerald flames that were her trademark ability before she jumped at the redhead, who quickly engaged her into a fight. The blond boy quickly moved aside, letting the ladies do their things.

“You know,” Ron spoke to Drakken, “you still owe 20 bucks for our last bet.”

“Arg! She cheated!”

“Not my fault you decided to bet for Kim last time.” He replied while taking a look at the fight, “Say, I’ve always wondered…”

“What?” He replied, trying to scan the area in hopes to at least get away with the plans he was looking for.

“How come that, despite how much they fight, not to mention Shego’s freaky powers, their clothes just never get damaged like in so many Anime shows out there?”

Drakken’s lab-coat felt tight once again, “Er… why would you ask that?”

“C’mon! Wouldn’t it be awesome?”

“I heard that, Sidekick!!” Shego yelled from where she was fighting.

“Aw, crap…”

“Busted!” Rufus, the naked mole-rat, said as his head popped out from Ron’s cargo-pants’ pocket.

“I’ll just deal with things as they come,” Ron replied to his pet, then looked back at Drakken, “you really never thought of that?”

“Well, uhm… Shego’s suit is very resistant, so it’s unlikely to happen. Not sure about your girlfriend, but…”

“Er… she’s not my girlfriend.”

“She’s not?”

“For quite a while already. Man, catch up with the news!”

“Teenage drama ain’t news!” He replied in something that looked like a hissy fit, “So… why aren’t you trying to stop me?”

“‘Cause you haven’t moved from where you are. We could fight and struggle as we usually do – not as cool as them, that’s for sure – but I thought you just decided we’d save ourselves the bother this time.”

“Oh!”

“I mean, it’s up to you!”

“Yeah, that… actually sounds like a good idea.”

“That’s what I thought! So, who do you wanna bet on this time?”

* * *

On the other end of the lab, the other half of each team wasn’t getting along so well. Kim, despite her younger age, usually handled herself just fine against the world-renowned criminal, but tonight things just weren’t going her way, and this had been a trend for the last few months…

She blocked Shego’s horizontal slash and tried to counterattack, only to have herself blocked by the green woman’s elbow and then hit by her fist right between her breasts, which pushed her against the wall, from where she quickly had to roll to her side to avoid her nemesis’ next hit, which pierced through the wall.

“What’s _with_ you lately!?”

“Well, what do you think?” She replied with a smirk, “I’m not letting you go home and brag about having beaten me!”

“Oh, I’m gonna brag about _much_ more than that!” She said, getting up and delivering a kick Shego barely blocked, “You’re going to jail!”

* * *

“I-I’ve decided!” Drakken finally said.

“About time, dude! I was getting tired of playing Spider on the Kimmunicator!”

“I’m betting for Shego this time!”

“You sure?”

“You’re not getting this one, buffoon!”

He shrugged, “Alright, I’m confident that Kim will pull out something soon enough so-”

His words were interrupted by a female voice’s scream as its owner fell hard on the ground between the scientist and the sidekick. A distressed look filled Ron’s face as he saw Kim forcing herself to stand up… and barely managing.

“K-Ki-” He managed to say before he noticed a gloved hand with dangerously edgy claws right next to his neck.

“Don’t move an inch, Sidekick!”

“HA!” Drakken yelled, pointing a finger at Ron, “Now the bet’s even!”

“What the hell are you wasting time _with_!?” Shego questioned. To say she looked unhappy would be a bit of an understatement. “Go get what we came for already!”

“O-on it!” He replied before getting away from the scene.

“S-Shego…” Kim growled, looking crossly at the green-skinned woman.

“I don’t think it’s in your sidekick’s advantage to do anything, Kimmie.”

She actually let out a small laugh, “Ron?”

“In a moment, KP!” He replied eagerly.

“What? What can you possibly do in your sit-” She was saying before she suddenly felt an intense piercing pain right over her shoulder, whose source she got a hold off and threw away, “AGH! Goddamn moler-!”

Again, that’s as far as she got to say before the underestimated sidekick, no longer held at point-blank, performed a quick, slicing kick that threw Shego off her feet before quickly jumping away and catching his pet and best buddy in the world midair.

“Good work, buddy!” He said, clashing his index finger with Rufus’s pawn in their personal high-five.

“You two-!”

“Ron!” Kim claimed, quickly stepping between him and Shego, “Hurry up and catch Drakken!”

“But KP, you-!”

“Just GO!”

Against his best judgment, he obeyed, alas…

“Shego, I found it!” Drakken claimed, showing up and holding the scrolled plans high in his hand.

“Alright!” She said, lighting up both hands now, “Let’s wrap this up, shall we?!”

Knowing what was to come, Kim got ready to avoid the blast. Not taking his chances, though, Ron quickly dashed forward, hugged Kim and covered her, and took Shego’s blast right between his shoulderblades. As they were both blasted away, Ron rolled around to take the fall as well.

“Ron!!!” Kim yelled, seeing his friend’s borderline unconscious on the ground, but not lethally wounded. She then heard – and subsequently watched – Drakken and Shego getting away.

“Wait here, Ron…”

Ron nodded, forcing a smile, enough to let her know he’d be okay.

_‘Those two must have actually forgotten who I am…’_ She thought as she hurried outside.

* * *

The laboratory was located at the outskirts of the city, a place isolated enough to safely hide something in the bushes. That was where Drakken had left their usual hover-pod. They already had it floating a good 30 feet over the ground by the time Kim arrived. Seeing victory at hand, Drakken couldn’t help but to brag.

“You think you’re all that, Kim Possible, but tonight we have proven you’re-!”

But as interruptions were the latest fashion tonight, his happened when Kim’s grappling-hook shook the hover-pod, and the next thing he knew, the redhead was crouching right in front of them, not looking happy…

“I’m Kim Possible…”

Shego, green burning plasma in her hands, tried to attack, only to have her arm blocked by Kim’s kick, who – having stepped forward in her attack – now stood right next to Drakken, the grappling-hook’s rope – in her grip – already surrounding the doctor as her free hand took the plans and blueprints away from him. The rope got also tied around one of the flying vehicle’s levels before she jumped out, her weight pulling the rope and simultaneously capturing Drakken tightly and pulling the level, setting the pod at full speed and thus sending it flying away just in time as she cut free from grappling gun and its rope.

“And I! Can!! Do!!! ANYTHING!!!” The whole thing had taken just as much as it took her to say that.

After she landed and got back up, her enemies’ scared screams were already disappearing the distance. She was confident in that they wouldn’t try to return now. She’d have to safeguard the blueprints ‘til tomorrow, anyway, and she knew Shego and Drakken would never attack her at her home.

“KP!” She heard Ron calling out. She then saw him quickly clearing the distance between them. “You made it?”

“No big!” She said, proudly holding the blueprints in her hand. “What about you, Ron? That was a hard hit…”

“Meh, nothing a couple of painkiller won’t solve,” he replied, stretching his back a bit, “got any of those in the Sloth?”

“Yeah… I’ll need to take a couple as well,” she said as she rubbed her shoulder. Next she took out her Kimmunicator and contacted their tech-expert, “Wade? You can inform the authorities that Drakken’s plans were foiled. We’ll be safeguarding what they tried to steal ‘til tomorrow to keep it safe.”

“Great job, KP!” The Afro-American teenager congratulated from his room, “Sorry this had to come up tonight. I know you’ve been stressed lately with the moving and… other things…”

“It’s okay, Wade. None of this is your fault.”

“Speaking of which… she already guessed you went on a mission without her.”

“You told her?”

“I denied it… but she didn’t believe me.”

Kim sighed, “Anyway, we better head back already. It’s late and you’ve got to help me tomorrow.”

“Aw, man. Did you have to remind me of that?” Ron asked as Kim turned off her Kimmunicator and began walking toward her car.

“Come on, I’ll drive you home.”

“Are you sure? Wouldn’t that be a big delay?”

“Hey, the later I arrive home, the better as far as I’m concerned.”

“Why’s that? I mean, the problems are over and-”

“Speak for yourself!” She interrupted for the last time of that mission, “For me, this was the _easy_ part!”

* * *

 

After leaving Ron at his place and driving nearly a mile more, Kim reached the residence she currently considered home. It was a small apparent that was… well, if she had to be sincere, below average. Even though there were only two people living there, they barely had enough space. Especially with all the boxes piled around that still needed to be unpacked, and neither the bathroom nor the kitchen were worth writing home about. They had separate rooms, but that only limited the amount of free space. Sharing the room and using the other one for storage would have helped the situation, but…

_‘Just… not gonna happen…’_

At least the place was clean and renovated thanks to the help of her friends and some of the people that owed Kim a favor – including a certain villainess – and was, all things considered, decent and comfortable for what it was worth. The landlady was a pain in the ass (though god forbid that was spoken out loud), but the neighbors were nice. It was bit crowded, but they’ll would soon have everything they needed.

Now, if only she could look _forward_ to arriving home…

“KIM!!!” The person living with her yelled the very moment she stepped into the apartment. Kim simply rested against the closed door.

Seconds later, a slightly petite, thin and – most notably – pale-green skinned thirteen years old girl with dark, shoulder-length hair walked up to her, wearing nothing but a black long shirt, slippers and presumably panties below the shirt. Not that Kim could tell, though.

“You went on a mission without me, didn’t you!?”

Kim sighed and repeated the phrase that nowadays felt even more overused than her motto.

“Agni, you’re not allowed to go into missions!”

“Says Miss-Law-and-Order!” She replied, kicking the floor.

“Says your mother and I! You already caused Shego enough troubles last time!”

“You went and fought my mom and didn’t take me?!”

“What did you want to be there for!? Cheerleading for her while we fought?!” The redhead questioned, already exasperated.

“Cheerlead!? You think I’m gonna fall as low as to follow your footstep?!”

“You’re talking to the woman who beat your oh-so idealized mom tonight, kid.”

“Yeah?” She questioned, looking at her up and down, “the bruises in your body tell me otherwise!”

“Oh, for crying out loud!” She yelled as she walked past the little girl, finally throwing herself on their couch, “why in the world did I agree to taking care of an ungrateful brat like you!?”

“Because, like my mom puts it, you’re a goody-two-shoes with a Messiah Complex that just can’t ever say No to people.” Agni replied, “Admit it; my mother kicked your ass!”

“It was a draw!” She replied, turning around the couch and facing up. “She got the upper hand on the battle, but I foiled their plan in the end.”

“You haven’t been on your best lately…” Agni commented, not in a mocking tone, but more like actually stating a fact.

“I know…” The redhead admitted, her arm resting over her forehead, “I’m just… not getting enough rest, and getting too tired during the days…”

“Get a shower and go to sleep. Still early enough for you to get some rest and I can watch whatever I want on the TV.”

“I was actually planning that much,” Kim agreed, slowly getting up from the couch, “that is, _after_ I make us dinner.”

“YOU want to make dinner?!”

“C’mon, even I can manage a simple meal for two people.”

As soon as Kim entered the kitchen, Agni ran to pick up something from her room.

* * *

“Oh, for Christ’s sake!” the redhead cried as she fought to put down the fire with a towel. When suddenly a loudly noise clamored out accompanied by a thick white cloud that covered everything. The next moment everything was silent. Her eyes throbbed as she rubbed her hand across them to clear her vision. She turned to find her roommate at the kitchen’s entrance with a particular “weapon of choice”.

“Where did you get that extinguisher!?”

“Brought it last time we went to your ‘rents’ place, hidden in one of my boxes,” she said as she put it aside, “Ain’t you glad I did, Rachael Ray?”

“Yeah, yeah, very funny!” she said, removing some of the foam from herself, then eyeing the clock in the wall, “Alright, it’s still early enough to go to Bueno Nacho, I guess. We’ll just have to make it shower first and then dinner.”

“Bueno Nacho?” She repeated, “Great, this is like living with my uncle after all! Glad to see you’re doing your part to fight the national obesity problem.”

“There _is_ healthy food at Bueno Nacho, you don’t have to follow Ron’s example. Now come on, let’s hit the shower.”

“Wait, you want us to shower _together_?”

“You’re not wasting all the hot water again!”

“But-!”

“Oh, wait, you’re a prude?”

“HELLS NO!!!”

Kim knew that would get her.

* * *

“Oh-My-God! You’re a true redhead!!”

The redhead banged her head against the shower’s wall.

* * *

Not long after that, the girls were at the neighborhood’s favorite restaurant. Or at least, _most_ of the neighborhood’s favorite restaurant.

“When you spend your whole life in one crappy city, it’s normal to hope the menus at other branches might be different. So imagine my _overwhelming joy_ to be proven right by the single most disgusting edible heart-attack in history,” the pre-teen said as Kim set their food on the table, consisting of a big salad to share and some toasted cheese-and-ham sandwiches.

“Honestly, you should track down and send to jail whoever’s the evil mind behind the _Naco_ …”

Kim had to suppress a laugh about that. Instead focusing on how annoying the little brat could be.

“Can’t we have _one_ dinner in peace?”

Agni grinned, “With one condition!”

Kim already didn’t like where this was going.

“Next time you’re fighting my mom, take me with you. That way, ya can’t bullshit anything to me when she kicks your ass.”

In a certain redhead’s opinion, the younger girl was an expert at ruining every moment of peace she could have.

“I already told you, Agni-”

“It’s dangerous business!” she said along the redhead, rubbing on her face in annoyance at how tried and tired that line was.

Kim was already giving up the idea of a peaceful dinner.

“I know what could solve that problem,” the green girl said with an impish smile.

This time, it was Kim’s turn to feel that she heard Agni’s coming suggestion far too many times for one lifetime.

“You already know my answer.”

But then the mischievous smile died, replaced by one of anger as Agni hit the table violently.

“Why won’t you train me already!?” she demanded, “You agreed to that when I agreed to live with you, but you keep delaying it or making excuses for it!”

“Summer vacation is almost over, Agni.” the redhead said with a strict and parental tone of voice, “We still have to finish moving. You’re starting on Middletown High School in three weeks, and I’m starting college in less than that. We both got more important things to focus on.”

“This _is_ important!” the younger girl insisted, “You’re just making excuses.”

Kim sighed. In her mind, she had to admit to herself that Agni was completely right about that. But at the same time, she knew that she couldn’t admit it out loud. She just… couldn’t… neither admit it, nor give in to her request.

It wasn’t that Kim didn’t think that Agni could take the training, or even that she couldn’t make time for her. No, the problem was another, and it carried with it one of Kim’s greatest fears: That she had no solution in sight for it, despite being the so called girl that could do _anything_.

“I’ll try to make some time for the day after tomorrow,” she lied, already making plans for escaping the deal.

“I’ll hold you to it.” her roommate replied with a frown, which only reinforced the reason Kim kept trying to avoid training Agni.

Said reason being a fear that surpassed everything she knew before, a fear fueled by Agni’s abrasiveness, reinforced by the kid’s attitude towards her, despite the fact that Kim saved her life in the past. Such ungratefulness she could simply dismiss, but to teach everything she knew about combat to someone like her?

If Kim had at least the slightest suspicion that Agni held some intention of following her footsteps, she would probably concede her wish, pass on her capabilities to a worthy successor, but as appealing as the idea was, Kim could only see it as foolish. She knew very well that she wasn’t Agni’s role model.

No, someone _else_ was…

“Let’s just eat and go home, please…” she said, doing her best to hide the sadness in her voice, “I really need some rest…”

When they finally finished and went back to the Sloth for the ride back to their apartment, it didn’t escape Agni that it took Kim half a minute more than her to step into the car.

“What was that?” she asked, but then noticed she was holding her Kimmunicator, so Kim’s answer was pretty predictable.

“Just a message from Wade.”

As she started the car, Kim couldn’t help but to reflect on how Agni’s pestering or attitude was actually far from the worst of her new lifestyle. Frustrating, hell yeah, but far from the worst.

No, the worst was… well, she really never expected that raising a child would require so much lying. She also hated that she was getting good at it…


	2. Lemme at her!

Agni had just finished unpacking a box of her stuff in her bedroom, when, as she was exiting said room, Ron dropped another box at her door.

“I think this one’s yours too.”

She eyed the context of the box, closing it instantly afterward and giving Ron a death glare.

“You saw nothing!” she ordered, trying her hardest not to blush.

“Hey, what’s the matter? Comic books are cool,” he mentioned casually, “I don’t know the names of any of those titles, though.”

“And you never will!” declared the green pre-teen as she dragged her Yuri Manga filled box into her room. That stuff was for her eyes only, damn it! “When’s your ex-husband arriving, anyway!?”

“Husband?” the blond repeated confused.

“Not gay!” the mole-rat exclaimed, jumping from his shoulder to the couch.

Agni snorted, “No, but she was clearly the man in the relationship.”

“Hey! I’ll have you know she was the cheerleader to my quarterback when I joined the football team!”

“I saw the photos of the cowboy and the ballerina!”

“Aww, good memories, really good memories,” he commented, lost in nostalgia and completely oblivious to the malice in the girl’s comments.

Said girl was currently opening the sliding glass door to the balcony to look from their third floor down to streets. She couldn’t help noticing yet again how the building right beneath this one reached almost as high as their balcony, and the next one, with its triangular tile roof top which was parallel to the street, worked almost like a rather big stairway.

But on said street, she saw the purple Sloth approaching.

“There she is!”

“Oh, good. I’ll go make us some appetizers to keep us all up through the hard work.”

“Appetizers?” the girl asked coming back inside just to see the blond disappear through the kitchen door. Her eyes fell on the mole-rat still on top of the sofa.

“Yummy-yummy!”

“He can cook?” she asked Rufus, and then felt stupid for talking to a mole-rat.

Yet he actually replied: “Uh-uh!”

“Hey, I heard that!” Ron retorted from the kitchen, “And not that I want to brag, but everyone always likes my cooking! Ask Kim if you don’t believe me…”

“Oh yeah!”

“Yea, yeah, I’mma gonna go ‘n start writing my will, don’t mind me.”

“We’re back!” she then heard Kim exclaim from the door.

Wait. _We?_

“So this yer place, cuz?”

Oh HELL no!

“What’s SHE doing here!?” she asked, turning around to face Kim and her _own_ nemesis.

“Well!” Kim began as she and her company dropped the boxes they brought by the wall, “my cousin just happened to be kind enough to help us move the last boxes here, and I believe, y’know, you two could be civil for the sake of the common good. Isn’t that right, Joss?”

Yet when she eyed her own cousin, Kim couldn’t help but to frown upon seeing Joss Possible held the same death glare that Agni was holding towards her.

“Ah said Ah’d _try_ , cuz…” Joss spoke, resentment naked in her voice.

“Yeah, but that’s far from what ya wish, ain’t it?” Agni questioned, clearly sharing the feeling.

Kim’s hand and face met in a frustrating slap, but then an idea came to her mind.

“Oooookay, since both of you are SO willing to get along, we’ll just leave you two alone for a moment while Ron and I go back to the Sloth to pick the last boxes. Now, RON!”

“In a second, KP!” he yelled from the kitchen, from where they all heard a ‘DING!’ following, “Alright, everything’s cooking. Let’s go!”

Without further ado, Ron and Kim exited the apartment, leaving the two pre-teen girls by themselves, plus Rufus, who kept looking at them from the sofa and wondering if he was just about to contemplate a death match.

Fortunately, Joss just moved to check the content of the nearest box.

“So, _why_ exactly are ya here, cowgirl?”

“Didn’t yuh hear mah cuz? Ah’ came ahere to help. Yer’ welcome!”

She wouldn’t buy it. “Don’t try to fool me, fangirl.”

“Unlike this box here’ with the worst fashion sense ever, not everything hafta be about yuh, _fangirl_ ,” she replied as she moved the box closer to the green girl, which effectively was filled with her clothes, “Ah’ jus’ wanted to see the place Kim moved to because of ya.”

“You’re blaming that on _me?_ It’s because of YOU that we had to move and get me stuck with your idol’s cooking damnation! Between you arriving to stay and the disaster-twins now each wanting a room for their own it’s that your “cuz” decided to be the saint she always has to be ‘n contribute to the family cause and drag her ass and mine out of there so there’d be space for everyone!”

“An’ it would’da been no problem if yuh ain’t had been there in the first place!” the southern girl replied, “Even with the tweebs wantin’ their own huts, one o’them could’a had the guest room and Ah’ could have stayed with my cuz!”

“Right, should’ve expected that from such a kiss-ass.”

“Oh, look, who’s talkin’!”

“Okay, that’s it!” she began, but then something jumped on her head and kept her from starting a riot.

“No fighting!” Rufus commanded.

“I don’t take orders from you, pest!”

“Hey, more respect to Rufus!” Joss said, extending her hand for Rufus to jump to from Agni’s head, “He knows his business, don’tcha, little fella?”

“Yeah, hide behind the mole-rat, why don’tcha?”

Joss would have replied with something right away, if it wasn’t for the sound of the door opening once more, following with Kim stepping in with one box hanging from her left arm, and two over her shoulder.

“Well, glad to see you could remain civil,” the redhead said as she passed right pass them and towards her bedroom without breaking a sweat despite the weight on her, and not noticing the awestruck stares of the younger girls.

“What does your cousin _eat_ , anyway?”

“Wish ya knew, ain’t so?”

“Little help here?” Ron’s voice called from the entrance, where the girls saw him carrying three box himself, all piled up in both his arms, but not holding as up as well as Kim.

“Lemme help ya, Ronald!” said the farm girl after leaving Rufus back with Agni, who just looked curiously at the bald pet.

“Gotta admit, you oughta know your business,” she told him, getting Rufus proud of himself, “otherwise that owner of yours would have long left this world.”

“Hey!” the little mammal replied, his suddenly gained kinship for the green girl already lost.

“Thank, Joss, hey, it’s okay, you don’t need to take most of it.”

“Don’t worry, Ronnie!” she replied cheerfully, carrying away two of the boxes, each in one shoulder, with her, “Ah can handle this.”

“Lemme guess, ya and your cuz share the diet?” Agni asked after Joss dropped the box near her.

“I’m from the farm, Greenie. I’m used to hard labor.”

Agni just shrugged, “Whatever you say, Hillbilly.”

Then Ron had his moment: “Hey! The cupcakes are done!”

“Sweet, Ron!”

“How nice of you.”

“We’re all gonna die…”

She expected to see a tray jam-packed with poorly done Bueno Nacho imitations, or bursting with monstrosities begging to be put out their misery. However, Agni actually found her mouth watering at the sight of the chocolate cupcakes with mascarpone top to, pardon the pun, top!

“Wait, he can actually, _actually_ cook!?”

“Of course he can!” Joss replied as they sat around the short table next to the sofa, where Ron laid the tray, “Cooking is just one of Ron’s many talents!”

He allowed himself a moment under the spotlight, “And if I may say so myself, one of many fans’ favorites.”

When she actually tried one of the cupcakes, Agni had to admit to herself that she was _delighted!_

“I ‘nsist, Goldilocks!” she began, despite not having swallow what she was chewing, “You’d make the perfect bride!”

To which Kim just had to stand up, “Agni!”

“Do you think a veil would look good on me?”

“ _Ron!_ ”

“ _Veil?_ Yer’ still unspoiled!?”

“ _JOSS!_ ”

Agni finally swallowed with a soundly gulp before adding, “Ya should learn from him! Put your slave to good use for once!”

“Okay, first! He’s not my slave, he’s my sidekick, and second… er…”

“I’ve tried teaching her before,” Ron continued for her, “unfortunately, it didn’t help much beyond teaching her how to turn every piece of silverware into a weapon of combat…”

“Well, saved my life once!” the redhead commented between nervous laughs.

“You’re teaching me that tomorrow then!” the green girl declared triumphantly.

Kim’s mood soured upon being reminded of the appointment she had to find a way to escape from tomorrow, but she kept it from showing.

“Alright, let’s just chow down, shall we?”

“Why sure!” Agni replied, already sinking her teeth into a second muffin.

“Enjoying yourself, uh?” Joss said with a teasing tone.

The pre-teen didn’t bother swallowing for replying, “Mud bether ‘an wha’ he uhually ruin’ hish diet wigh,” she halted a second to finally gulp it down, “Then ‘gain, topping Malo Naco ain’t much of a challenge.”

“I still think you should take her to the otolaryngologist to check for taste disorder!” Ron whispered to Kim.

“I heard that!”

“Yipes!” cried Rufus seeing the green flames.

“So, muffin lover,” Joss began, capturing Agni’s attention, her fire forgotten and dismissed, “Anybody in yer family even close to this cooking skills?”

Oh, the cowgirl was messing where she should never, and so imprudently that Agni couldn’t help but to smirk.

“Three times Culinary Champion by the ACF,” she stated, “that’s my Granny.”

The farm girl looked stupefied, “Yer lying!”

In a swift movement, Agni took Kim’s Kimmunicator from her and turned it on.

“Hey, Nerdenstein, care do a little research?”

“First” Wade began, looking not amused, “I told you already: No, they aren’t airing the dubbed version of Marimite in North America nor are there any downloads, and second, I’m making you your own Kimmunicator, since you clearly like stealing Kim’s so much.”

“She _what!?_ ”

“Yer a thief, just like yer momma!”

“What’s Marimite?”

Agni hated herself for blushing, and would have melted the device in her hand if she didn’t know that would _really_ piss off Kim. After throwing a death glare at Ron, she returned her attention to her tutor’s tech assistant.

“Unless ya want me getting you into a marathon that _will_ leave you thinner than yours truly, we’ll pretend you said nothing and ya’ll check the Awards Record of the Ace Cooking Faggots and search for Isabel Drago”

“Aaaand done!” he said, having started the work while Agni was still describing it, “She shows up three times, quite a feat. Here’s a picture of her during her first victory.”

Upon hearing that, Agni tried shutting down the device. Unfortunately for her, she was having a rather strong influence on Kim’s cousin, as the tanned girl quickly snapped the item out of her hands to look at said picture.

“Will yuh look at that!” she went, seeing the image of a young woman with a chef hat and apron. She was in front of a desk where laid a trophy and a big, white cake lacking a couple of already cut pieces. She wasn’t alone in the photo, though…

“Hey!!”

“Who’s the little boy in the picture?” Ron asked, taking the Kimmunicator from Joss after taking a peak, “Hey! Is that…?”

“Shego?” Rufus finished for him, staring at the photo.

“Gimme that!” Agni yelled, jumping on top of the blond boy and causing the device to jump up into the air, getting skillfully caught shortly after by its rightful owner.

“Well, I’ll be…” the redhead began, “I already knew there was a strong family resemblance, but wow, both your grandmothers look remarkably like Shego back in their days.”

Without missing a beat, Agni jumped from Ron towards Kim, who simply let her grab the Kimmunicator, and consequently fall over the end of the sofa and head first into a box left right beside it.

“Who was the little boy?” Ron asked again.

“Well, doy! It was clearly her!” joked Joss.

“Ha-ha, very funny!” the green girl claimed as she exited the box, a black top shirt having found its place over her head.

“Mh,” Kim began, “I think that must be Hego.”

“ _Hego?!_ ”

“Hey, look what I found!” Agni exclaimed, gaining everyone’s attention as she drew a certain stuffed toy out the box. She smirked as she held it on one hand and lightened up the other.

“Don’t. You. _Dare!_ ” Kim threatened.

“Y’sure? I thought we could throw some fireworks to celebrate you finally leaving the cradle.”

“Put. Pandaroo. Back. _In the box!_ ”

She scoffed, “Fine, can’t help ya if you don’t want to grow up.”

Joss imitated her gesture, “This from ya, Tiny Green?”

“Like you’re much taller!”

The farm girl grinned, “Still taller!”

Not a second later, Agni had tackled the self-proclaimed taller girl. Kim quickly grabbed their ankles and stood up, separating both girls before they could start pulling each other’s hairs off.

“Lemme at her!” they both yelled, arms swinging at one another.

With a simple but strong swing, Kim threw both girls upwards and caught them by the collars of their shirts before forcefully sitting them on opposite ends of the couch, her sitting in the middle.

“Now, you two are gonna behave so we can peacefully eats the last cupcakes…” she said, but then looked at the tray where the only remaining cupcake was getting devoured by Rufus faster than anyone else ate any of those, “Well, so much for that…”

The green pre-teen huffed, but then looked up at a familiar ringtone playing, “Your vibrator is wishing to please you.”

“Ha-ha, very funny!” the redhead replied, hating her inability to keep herself from blushing as she took out her Kimmunicator, “What’s up, Wade?”

“Hey, Kim” the Afro-American boy saluted with a smile, “I just finished reviewing a recently arrived mission for you.”

“Great!” Agni exclaimed, storming into device’s screen vision, “Whose ass are we kick-HEY!”, but then she got pushed away.

“Not sure which villain may be involved yet.” Wade followed, “The mission is about some recently stolen equipment.”

“From where?”

“Your father’s space center, actually. It was stolen last night.”

“Booooring!” the pre-teen voiced, “You and Goldilocks can keep this one for yourselves.”

“Man!” went Ron, “And here I thought Rufus and I were sitting out of one for a change.”

“I’ve already transferred the coordinates. It’s not particularly far, so you can just take the Sloth.”

“Hey, c’mon, Wade, that’s low!”

“He means my _car_ , Ron!”

“Oh! He-he, right, your car, of course! Gotta take the Sloth for the ride.”

“Uhm, Kim?” Joss called, “What about…?”

“Well!” Kim began, standing up and looking down at both young girls in the couch, “I’d like to believe you two _responsible ladies_ could keep up the work on the apartment while Ron and I are away for a few hours, riiiiiiiight?”

Said ‘responsible ladies’ then stared at each other. Kim could swear she _saw_ the fire in their eyes, their growling, and their prolonged F before they both agreed on what to say…

“Ffffffff _ffffffffiiiiiiiine!_ ”

“That’s what I wanted to hear!” she said, patting their heads before heading to her room, from where she called out, “Hey, Ron, you need to pick anything up your place?”

“For an investigation job?” he retorted, “All I need is right here: The nose of my buddy!”

“Right on!” Rufus agreed.

“Very well!” she said as she exited her room, mission clothes and equipment ready, “Let’s go!”

“Yeah, yeah…”

“Why so discouraged?”

“Can I just say I agree with Agni about investigation missions?”

“No, you can’t!”

“Aw, man!”

“And bring back snacks!” Agni yelled at them, slamming the door closed after they left.

“So!” Joss began, “What now?”

“What!? Ya wanna keep on fighting!? Wow, I’m actually _disappointed_ in you, Montana!”

Joss took a deep breath, “Ah _meant:_ Howdy think we shall proceed with yer work ‘round here?”

“Ya’re actually asking me?”

This time the farm girl rubbed her temples, “I _thought_ tha’ since YER the one living in this stable, it should be yer call, ya green bean!”

“Oh, so you’re finally learning your place, good, good, like the professional butt-kisser you are!”

“Are’ya ASKIN’ for it now!?”

“Okay, _fine!_ ” Agni gave up, “Just help me with these boxes here and I’ll make it worth your time!”

For the following twenty minutes, the two girls worked on picking out the boxes and their proper destination, whenever it was Kim’s bedroom, Agni’s, the kitchen, bathroom, or just leave it in the main room.

“Okay, that’s all done. Where do we start unpacking now?”

“NOW, you grab your things,” Agni replied as she picked her set of keys from the table, “We’re going out.”

Joss blinked, “But there’s still plenty of work to do!”

“And it’s not gonna get all done today anyway, so I don’t see any point in rushing things or taking all the work off’a your cousin’s back! ‘sides, we’ve done more than enough for today. You wanna be a city girl now, right? Then let’s go have some well earned city fun now! There’s an arcade just a few blocks from here!”

The farm girl’s eyes actually light up, “Really!?”

“What, you’ve never been at one?” the younger girl asked, opening the apartment door, “C’mon, it’s always better with some company!”

“O-Okay!”

* * *

“Kim!” a blonde scientist at the Space Center’s hall exclaimed, running up to meet the teen hero, “It’s been so long since we last met!”

“It truly has been. How’ve you been, Vivian?”

“Just fine. Your father keeps me real busy, but it’s great to have something to do when you just know how to do it.”

Kim huffed, “Trust me, I’d love to be in your shoes.”

“Really, KP?” Ron questioned.

“What?”

“Well, you’re always looking down on geeks like me and Viv here!”

The redhead rolled her eyes and went back to Vivian Potter. “So… I think my dad’s waiting for me?”

“Oh yeah, come this way.” she said, guiding them through the place, “I suppose you can already guess, but your father wants to keep this one secret too to protect the company’s image.”

Kim hesitated before asking, “And… how do you feel about that?”

“What do you mean with that?”

“Well, I… I remember what you told me about why you made your robotic boyfriend back when we first met, so… I guess I assumed you aren’t the type to feel comfortable with reputation coming from just the image of something.”

Vivian looked thoughtful for a moment.

“Well, you _are_ right, Kim, but I’d be lying if I said I was above that myself. After all, I _did_ build Oliver to serve as an avatar for me.”

“Yeah,” she replied, “I guess so.”

“But why are you so concerned about this, Kim?” Vivian asked, “Are you having… problems with reputation and holding up an image lately? If you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

“Long story short,” Kim began, “I’ve been getting better at lying, and I don’t feel exactly comfortable with that.”

“Oh my…” was all the blonde scientist could say about it, “Have you… talked this with anyone?”

“Only with Ron here,” Kim answered, looking back at her friend, “and he and I just…”

“Long story short,” Ron repeated, “We didn’t agree on the matter at hand.”

“Well,” Vivian followed “I don’t wanna pry, but… Kim, you and Ron have been friends for so long, I believe you must know Ron would only wish the best for you with his advice.”

“I know,” she retorted, giving Ron a warm smile, “It’s just that… we don’t see the problem from the same angle.”

“KP,” the sidekick called. “I’m just gonna tell you the same thing you told me back in the day when we met Vivian.”

“Uh? What?”

“ _You’re thinking too much!_ ” he practically barked at her.

“Stop!” Rufus added.

Kim sighed, “Trust me, Ron… I’d love for things to be so simple, but… I really don’t think, don’t feel they are.”

“Well, just try to leave those problems aside for now,” Vivian told her, placing her hand on a palm reader that identified her fingertips, “We’re here.”

Past the open door, the three of them were greet by none other than Dr. James Timothy Possible, who was focused on an empty podium where Kim could guess once laid whatever was stolen.

“Hey, dad!”

The doctor turned around to eye the arriving trio, “Oh, hi Kimmie! Hi, Roland!”

“Hey there, Mr. Dr. P!”

“So, what’s the case, dad?”

“Well, as you can see…” he began, turning around towards the podium, “our latest Artificial Fusion Radio Synthesizer Mass Complex System has disappeared.”

“Your… what?” she asked with not exactly the happiest expression.

“Yeah,” Ron added, “you think you could translate that to English maybe? I mean, my Japanese is getting better, but still-”

“ _Ron._ ”

As James was about to speak, Vivian cut in: “It’s a new device that can do just _wonders_ with radio frequency, from decoding information to transmit it in what may be even newer means. Possibilities might be endless.”

Kim pondered on that for a moment, “Do you think a super-villain may have stole it? Or maybe a rival company?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the first one, really” James replied, “in the wrong hands, that technology could be pretty dangerous.”

“How so exactly?”

“Because it can control information in ways we don’t yet know how to stop. Granted, there’s other methods today that may prevent things like tricking countries into going into war, and it’s not like it can allow the user to hack any computer within its reach – which is practically unlimited – but still, there’s endless possibilities.”

“Like fake the outcome of the latest sport events’ results?!” Ron asked.

“Well, technically _yes_ ,” James replied, “but I highly doubt anyone would steal it just to use it for _that_.”

“Maybe,” Vivian said, “but if I find out someone lied about the Chicago Bulls losing last night, I’m gonna be _crossed!_ ”

“Well said, Viv!” Ron added…

“Yeah!” …along with Rufus.

On her part, Kim sighed and turned around to call her tech support. “Wade, can you imagine why someone would steal a device that can manipulate radio frequency?”

“Well, check this out.” Wade responded, putting an image of a device that looked like a capsule in the Kimmunicator’s screen, “I just got yet _another_ case. The device you see has recently been stolen from a laboratory in the north outskirts of Upperton. It is known as the "Alchemizer", and although still in development, it is said to have matter transmutation capabilities.”

“Do you think the cases are connected?”

Wade’s figure returned to the screen, “Probably. Security camera records seem to have gone off during the time of the theft, although there are numerous ways of doing that. But I suspect the reason they stole it might be another.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…” he began, seeming nervous, “Is your father listening?”

Kim turned around to check on that, and came back to Wade just a few seconds later.

“My dad, Ron _and_ Vivian are currently entangled in _sports talks_ , so I can safely say they are not listening.”

“Well, don’t tell him this, but I’ve hacked into the Space Center’s files to investigate records of the progress with their new radio device, and I can safely say from what I’m reading that if a criminal got it, it’s very likely they could use it to make themselves nearly untraceable.”

“So they expected to be pursued?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me if by you specially.”

Kim thought about that for a moment, but her train of thoughts was interrupted by Ron’s advent.

“Hey KP, I was just thinking something!”

“Yeah?”

“Another kind of high-tech thingie just got stolen, uh? Isn’t this the kind of stuff Drakken tends to ‘out-source’ from?”

“So Drew did this?” James asked.

The redhead considered it for a moment, “It certainly is possible, but… I kinda doubt it.”

“Uh, why?” Rufus questioned.

“Well, he’d most likely need Shego for stealing things like these so fast, and I have reasons to believe Shego might be taking the day off.”

“But… that doesn’t exactly rule it out, does it?”

“No, Ron” she replied, “but don’t worry, I’ll verify it with her later today. Now’s just not the best time to contact her.”

“Don’t just buy everything she says, Kimmie.” James told her, “I know you and her keep contact of each other now because of you having become Agni’s guardian, but she’s still a thief.”

Kim nodded, “I know. I’m not that gullible.”

“How’s she doing, anyway?” her father asked.

“She’s fine.” she replied as she turned off her Kimmunicator, “She seems happy with our new place.”

 “Any further evidence?”

“Well, there’s this here,” Vivian called, drawing Kim to focus on a section of the metallic floor that was notably a dent, “If, as suspected, the thief came in through the window, by the mark of this landing I would say they could certainly take some diet advices from me.”

Kim directed her a smile, “Thanks for the help, Vivian.”

“Always a pleasure!” she replied.

“Ron and I will be leaving now.”

“What, already?” Ron complained, “But Viv was gonna tell me about the latest Robo-Rumble match!”

“Yes, _already_ , Ron.” Kim said with a hint of stress in her voice, “we have another crime scene to investigate.”


	3. There’s Fire in Me

 “Howdy-boooooooy!” Joss Possible exclaimed at the entrance of the Arcade, her impression naked on her face.

“What’s with ya?” Agni asked as she chained Joss’ bike, “Have you never been at one before?”

“Ah-I have, but… it was REAL long ‘go, and it wasn’t this big back then.”

Agni smirked. As far as company went, the ranch girl was proving to be amusing, at least.

“Well, let’s go in, shall we?”

“YESH!” she replied, having run inside the Arcade before even finishing that single word.

“Well, this is ought to be interesting.” the green girl said to herself as she followed in.

Differing from the over-excited brunette, though, who was checking out every game in the place one by one, she went straight to buying some coins for the two of them. Once she had that in hand, she searched for Joss, who was already lost within the place. Once she found her, she had to grab her shoulder to keep her from rushing away once again.

“So!” she began, raising a little bag full of coins which certainly caught the girl’s attention, “What do you wanna try first?”

“Ah-I dunno! There’s so much! Wha’ would ya recommend?

She thought about it for a moment, “There’s this shooter over there that kinda reminds me of your ‘cuz, if she used guns, that is, but still, let’s give it a shot, _literally_.”

Following the shorter girl, Joss soon came in sight with a big game with two screens for dual players. From the screens extended two mock gun holsters sporting a gun each, as well as a pedal at the bottom. Fortunately for the girls, the guy playing in one of the screens was just finishing.

“Now, remember,” she started explaining as she put two coins in, “you hold the pedal when you want to shoot, and let it go to take cover. It’s important. If you don’t, every red shot will take a life from you. I’ll try to warn ya, but be careful if you see any red.”

“Gotcha.” Joss replied, placing a hand in the red gun when she suddenly wondered, “Do you want Red or Blue?”

“You can keep Red. I could try the Blue one for a change.” Agni said, taking the blue gun as Joss raised the red one. “Now, shoot the upper option, so we can play it together.”

After pressing the start buttons in the middle of the holder, both girls did as Agni said. The game then began to play. There was a cut-scene, but Agni shoot the screen to cut it and shot it so the game would start playing.

“Long story short, a madman wants to take over the world and our player characters are out to stop it. Now shoot the bad guys!”

Both girls quickly began shooting everything that moved. Everyone died in one shot, so the first part of the game was over pretty quickly, the characters then moving to another location, where more enemies awaited across the more open area.

“Ah guess thi’ is kinda like what Kim ‘n Ron tend-ta do, just the two-o’dem, fightin’ lotsa criminal henchmen to save the day.”

“Yeah, if the sidekick was anywhere near her level maybe,” Agni retorted, her eyes focused on the game, “Watch out when any red enemies show up. Those tend to hit you right with their first shot.”

As if responding to that, Joss shot the aforementioned red enemy just as they appeared onscreen, but in doing so she also got hit by that enemy’s shot.

“Not bad for a first timer,” her co-player reassured, giving her a brief look as the characters moved to the next phase, “Watch out for the enemies with rocket-launchers too. Those are slow but they _always_ hit.”

“Why are ya suddenly helping me so much?”

“I don’t wanna waste more coins than necessary, that’s why!”

Joss sighed, “Yer sooo nice, Greenie… hey! What did you just do!?”

“Shoot the tanker,” she said, “some parts have explosives placed around that can clear the enemies in one shot.”

“Cool!”

“Yeah, now focus. You’re on your own for this part.”

Joss readjusted her aim, “No probs!”

To Agni’s surprise, Joss actually cleared her stage just as fast as she cleared her own.

“How _cool_ would it be to be able to do missions like this with my cuz!?” Joss commented, evidently having fun, “Well, without killing anyone, that is.”

Agni was silent. She wouldn’t admit it, but a couple of times she pictured herself doing this mission in real life with Kim by her side, sans the guns, but trusting each other’s skills and abilities and beating anything on their way, saving the day in the end. Maybe she wasn’t so skilled yet, but she knew she had the potential. She really didn’t get it. Why would Kim, always so willing to help others, refuse to train her so stubbornly?

“Hey! Earth to Tiny Green! Rocket-launchers at five o’clock!”

“ _Shit!_ ” Agni cursed, focusing back on the game and berating herself for losing a life. “Gonna give these overcompensating assholes some payback here. You focus on the guy with the machinegun, but watch yourself!”

“He the leader?” Joss replied, following suit and attacking the cartoonish looking bad guy. Her shots actually knocked off his hat revealing a bald head.

“Nah, just one of his go-to boys, probably.”

Once the heavy guys with rocket launchers were down, both girls put their focus on the level’s main boss, soon putting it down, which – probably just for the sake of coolness – was followed by the vehicle he was firing from exploding.

“Okay, I’ll have to admit,” Agni started to say, feeling cheerful enough to make a confession, “you’re doing much better than I thought.”

“Ain’t like Ah never had sum’ practice,” the cowgirl replied as they entered the new stage.

“Wait, you’ve actually _wielded_ guns?!”

“Mostly bolt-action rifles, when huntin’ with my pops. But Ah’ve also got sum practice with revolvers.” Joss explained, now timing her shots to destroy the barrels rolling down their way as they came, she was behind Agni on this, though. “Nevar used any of ‘em agains’ no person, though. And my Kim wouldn’t approve.”

“And then you complain when I call you an ass-kisser.” Agni replied as she killed the soldiers throwing down the barrels.

Joss smirked, “Yer’ just the kettle callin’ the pot black, Greenie.”

Agni snorted, “Which is it? Green or black?”

“Both, just like yer momma.”

Agni shared her smirk, “Got that one right.”

As if emphasizing that, both girls killed the last two standing enemies simultaneously, their characters proceeding to their next level.

“I wouldn’t hold my hopes if I were you, though,” Agni spoke, “your cousin sure doesn’t seem eager to take any pupils or new sidekicks. Trust me, I’m talking from experience.”

“Well, yeh, she is protective,” the brunette responded, honoring the word by killing the soldiers that seemed to be aiming for her current partner, “But why’s that a problem? It never stopped me.”

“Me neither, but sneaking into her missions hasn’t really earned me anything yet.”

“See? That’s where yer doin wro-HEY! Howdy comes only yer a-getting a machina-gun!?”

“Quit whining and focus on your part!” the green girl retorted, though secretly she was enjoying the ranch girl’s envy, “Ya’ll get one later on.”

“No wonder ya kept that player to yerself!” she voiced, finding her part killing normal enemies to be pretty boring when compared to the awesome fight Agni was having against an armored truck.

“Just finish with those guys and join me if you want some of the action!” she told her, “What was it you were going to say, anyway?”

“Yea, yeh, ya trickster.” she spoke, enjoying killing the last enemy probably more than she should have, then join the battle against the armored truck. She was still stuck with just a gun, though, “What you’re doing wrong is doing what your mother does and tryin’ to steal what ain’t yours.”

“The only thing I’m stealing here is the high score of this game from you!” she retorted, “What’re ya even babbling bout!?”

“Hoooooly cow!” Joss exclaimed when the truck exploded under their offensive power, “This is such a cool game!”

“Yeah, now after the bald guy.” Agni told her, “You still haven’t explained what you said.”

“Geez, are ye blind on top of deaf?”

“Just shoot already! And I don’t mean the bad guys!”

“Good, ‘cause this section on boats is sure making aiming pretty hard! ACK! There goes my second life!”

“Just answer already, will you? I don’t wanna have to shoot you. Seriously, I’ll lose points if I do.”

“Hey, girl, hold yer horses,” Joss replied, taking a moment to carefully aim and take down two enemies on the distance before leaving some attention back for Agni, “Yer problem is, why are ye after my cousin’s missions, if you don’t even like her?”

Agni blinked, confused, “What?”

“Geez!” the ranch girl expressing, taking out her frustration on the bald villain she was shooting, “Why do ya wanna do what my cousin does!?”

Though focused on the game, Joss noticed she let her character take cover and even lowered her gun. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Agni looking thoughtful for a second, before she rose up both her sight and her character and took out two guys and the boss fight in an instant.

“That’s why!” she replied, “I wanna kick some ass!”

As if to emphasize her point, her playing became scary serious, with her shooting down arriving enemies before they could even get to throw a single shot at them.

“There’s fire in me, itching to burn something, and not just figuratively.”

Even the bad guy fell rather quickly in his last attempt to attack them.

“ _That_ is-SHIT!”

But in her reckless offensive, the bald guy struck a shot at her. Now both girls were down to their last life.

“Well, yer’ gonna burn yerself if that’s your fire.”

“Zip it!” she said as she got back on the offensive.

“You’re still aiming the wrong direction,” she said as they both tried to shoot down the quite rapidly moving villain, neither of them striking any hit, “Damn, and Ah didn’t even mean it literally.”

“Then where am I supposed to aim, Miss Know-It-All?”

“For your own jobs, duh!” Joss replied, striking down the enemy reinforcements while Agni kept aiming for the bad guy, “Quit trying to steal Kim’s missions and get your own! Make your own website, your own reputation, and fight yer own bad guys!”

Agni stopped playing. It didn’t escape Joss that now she had the younger girl’s full attention.

“Aim for what you want,” she said, arm raised fully and pointing carefully, “And soon you’ll hit the jackpot!”

Her one shot hit right where she wanted, knocking the villain down, and because she drew his attention, she had to let her character take cover.

“Now go for it!”

Rising from cover, Agni unintentionally mimicked the farm girl’s method, aiming carefully before delivering the last shoot the bad guy needed. His boat went out of control, and it exploded in the middle of the river, the music and explosions then congratulating both successful players.

“Ain’t that sounding smarter?”

Agni sighed, resting her gun on the holder for the moment.

“You win this one, Montana.”

“No big,” she replied. They silently agree to let the following cut-scene play to get some time to talk, “It’s actually what Ah’ did back in town.”

“Ya did?” the green girl asked, surprised for a moment before realizing she should probably have expected this much from Kim’s cousin, “How’d _that_ go?”

“Not as planned.” Joss admitted, “There’s ain’t ever much happening in the sticks. Best Ah’ got was to help stopping a bull stampede.”

“That… actually sounds pretty exciting.” Agni recognized.

“Yeah, but Ah’ never got involved with any villains ‘cept a couple of thieves.” she commented, “But you know… if you ever actually get a job of tha’ kind, call me.”

“What?” Agni asked, taking hold of her gun now that the game was about to start playing again, “Now YOU wanna steal MY missions?”

“I just wanna see that fire of yers, Shorty.”

“Yeah, yeh…” she replied, “Now shup up and start shooting!”

* * *

When Kim got off the Sloth, she needed to stretch herself. Between moving things from her family’s house to her new home, investigating two crime scenes before dropping Ron off at his place, she had been driving for hours today and her body was starting to complain about it.

She really should start making some training schedule, she told herself, but then she realized that Agni would try to get into it at first chance. Maybe just going to the gym instead could help her stay in shape? She sighed. Her life was taking on a lot of changes lately and she could barely keep track of them all. But she knew better to be held down by over-thinking them, so instead she opted to just deal with what she currently had at hand.

Walking half a block from where she parked her car, she stepped into a bar she had bar she had gotten familiar with lately. It was barely sundown, so there would likely not be many people. That said, though, it was always pretty dark inside, even when there was still light outside, so you could never be sure how many people were around. But such was the point of this bar, “The Snuggly Duckling”, a place for meetings with privacy and confidentiality. It barely had any publicity, its owner choosing to remain as low-profile as possible, with knowledge of their place passed via word-of-mouth alone among those who knew of it to those who might need to know of such place.

For the teen hero, this place was practically perfect for meetings like the one she had scheduled. The guy at the door recognized her and let her in. It already seemed to be night from the inside.

Kim went to the counter first. Mind you, the place was still a bar, and one that tried to suit as many tastes as possible. Sometimes there were even events organized in this place. She met with Miss Maryam at the counter, the most fashionable bartender she ever met.

“Oh, hello Kimmie. Always a pleasure to see you.”

If Kim had to pick one word to describe the woman before her, the word would probably be “Classy.”

“Same here, Miss.” she replied as she sat down, “Just gotta wait for my typical someone.”

Miss Maryam nodded as she checked the bottles on the back shelves “Would you like a drink while you wait?”

“No need.” was the reply, but it didn’t come from Kim.

Before either of them could properly turn to the new arrival, said woman had already grabbed the teen’s hair, pinning down her head against the counter and meeting her lips with a violent, hungry kiss, which Kim found herself returning despite the abrasive gesture.

“Miss me?” Shego asked once the kiss ended.

“I _thought_ the idea of this bar was to not draw in any attention.” Kim complained.

“Don’t worry,” the green woman replied, “trust me, it’s not like anyone’s gonna give you away anyway.”

Kim let out a frustrated sigh, but accepted her girlfriend’s help when straightening up.

“Maryam, please bring our usual drinks to our table.” Shego told her.

“No need,” she replied, setting a tray with tow filled glasses over the counter. The couple picked their drinks, gave thanks to the bartender, and left for a table in a more private corner of the bar.

“I’m surprised you could make the time for me,” Shego told her, “last e-mail from Agni said you were really busy lately.”

“She did?” the redhead questioned, and cut herself from taking a zip from her drink when she realized the possible implications, “Wait, she’s not feeling _neglected_ , is she?”

Shego actually laughed at that, “Of course not. She actually says you could do yourself a favor and get some free time by getting off her case for a change.”

Kim’s hand slapped her eyes, “That lil’ brat…”

“Still, I’m more concerned about your recent change of location,” Shego commented, “I mean, just the two of you living together? Are you sure you can handle that?”

“Of course I can! I can do anything!” she declared, but then noticed Shego’s concerned expression, “What? You don’t think I can?”

“It’s not that,” she replied, “I just felt that… well, an environment with a full, caring family would be better for Agni.”

“Well, she shot plasma at the tweebs one too many times.”

“And now she might be shooting at you.” Shego said jokingly.

Kim smirked, “Like I’m not used to it. Still, it _would_ be nice if things could go more smoothly.”

“My kiddo? Smoothly? Whose daughter do you think she IS?”

She rolled her eyes, “Can’t you at least _try_ teaching her better?”

“Of course,” Shego replied proudly, leaning back on her seat, “I teach her the best of me.”

Kim sighed, “But that’s the problem.”

The comment took away the smile from her girlfriend, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” Kim replied quickly, “let’s just focus on us for now, okay?”

“You’re forgetting something, Cupcake.” Shego stated.

“Uh?”

Emerald eyes stared at her accusingly, “Who did you learn how to lie _from_ again?”

“I…” the teen began, trying to hold eye contact, but found herself looking down and gulping, “Sorry.”

“What’s the matter, Kimmie?” Shego asked, reaching out to hold her girl’s shoulder.

“I just… I fear that Agni might get herself in troubles because of following your example.”

Shego nodded, understanding Kim’s concern, but decided to inquire further, “How exactly?”

“I don’t know, but she seems to think she can do whatever she wants and that, so long as she gives it her all, she will somehow get away with it.” Kim explained, “Like you, specifically. Wanted in more than eleven countries and still on the loose.”

Shego let out a small laugh, “Pretentious lil’ brat, isn’t she?”

Kim smiled, glad to see she could bring this up without completely ruining the mood, “You can say that again.”

“But what’s she been up to lately, anyway?” Shego asked, “Did she sneak in another of your missions?”

“She’s tried twice,” Kim told her, then lowering her head in defeat, “Once… she made it, and then gave me a hell of a time because I didn’t allow her to keep that oversized ride she kicked Motor Ed off of.”

Shego couldn’t help laughing at the crazy story. Kim admitted to herself that it really sounded pretty fun in retrospective.

“Well, I’d say I’m proud of my little girl, but I fear you wouldn’t approve of that.”

Kim’s face read a sarcastic ‘Well, duh!’

“But you know, if you worry so much that she might get hurt, why not make some time to teach her everything you know?” Shego asked, “I thought you girls had agreed on that…”

“I offered once, and lately, she’s been asking this from me a lot…” Kim confessed, holding her hands together in anxiety, “But I don’t _want_ to!”

Shego blinked, “But… why?”

“Because I don’t want to _encourage_ this type of behavior in her!” Kim explained, “I don’t want to encourage going out and risking her life for the sake of a thrill, I don’t want to indulge this thirst for violence!”

Letting out a long sigh, the redhead nearly rested her head against the table.

“Can’t she just pick up another hobby? Preferably one that’s less risky.”

Shego took a sip from her drink, “Like world-saving?”

Kim now sounded angry, “Shego!”

Putting her glass down, the older woman directed a serious frown at her date.

“Well, what do you want me to tell you, Kimmie? This is pretty much the same argument over which we had our last fight.”

Partly confused and partly angered, Kim simply ask: “What!?”

“What? You don’t remember?” she inquired, “It started with that invitation to your graduation ceremony, and it ended up with you questioning most of my life choices.”

“Oh, right…” the teen replied, thinking for a moment before asking, “How… how did we settle on that?”

“We fought,” Shego reminded her, “and then we fucked.”

“ _Shego!_ ” Kim barked, blushing furiously and hitting the desk.

The other woman laughed, and while she didn’t say anything, Kim was glad things were lightening up once more.

“But honestly, Kim?” Shego began, “I know what you fear the most… so I’m just gonna ask you: What if Agni _wants_ to become a criminal like me when she grows up?”

Green eyes opened wide in fear, but Kim found herself without words to say. So the thief went on.

 “Look, I’m not saying I _want_ this for my daughter. Seriously, I don’t ever want her following on my footsteps, but… Kimmie, if… if THIS…” she said while pointing at herself as example, “If this turns out to be her life goal… do you think I could possible tell her no?”

Gulping down and avoiding eye contact, Kim muttered: “You’d support her…”

“I just want my little girl to be happy, Princess…” Shego replied, “And because of that, I honestly think you just gotta let Agni be herself.”

“But…” she began, but her girlfriend cut her off.

“Don’t you want her to be happy?”

“Of course I want her to be happy!” she replied instantly, not a hint of doubt in her determined eyes, “You… you… you don’t think I _care_?”

Reaching out, Shego took hold of Kim’s hands between her owns, “Of course you do, Kimmie.” she said with a warm smile, “You’re _all_ about caring.”

Relaxing on her seat, the redhead tenderly squeezed her girlfriend’s hand. “Thank you…”

“Thank _you_ , Pumpkin.” Shego responded, “You’re the one taking care of my daughter, dealing with your own problems, fighting crime on a regular basis, and you _still_ make the time to meet with your needy girlfriend, who just _happens_ to be me. So… thanks for doing this for me, Kimmie.”

 “You’re welcome,” Kim replied, silently grateful she had gotten to know Shego enough to have this relationship with her.

She wondered if she should thank _Agni_ for it. Come to think of it…

“But… speaking of fighting crime,” she began, deciding to dwell on a less awkward topic, “Have you and Drakken been up to something recently?”

Shego blinked, “What? Aside from you foiling our plans last night?”

Kim looked confused for a moment before the pieces came together in her mind.

“Oh _yeah!_ That _was_ last night!” she replied, laughing at herself.

“What!? Oh, I’m _so_ spanking you for forgetting!”

“H-hey!”

“Besides, what did we decide about not mixing our jobs with our dating life, _Princess_?”

The redhead sighed, “Never mind. I’m almost certain it wasn’t you guys anyway.”

This time, it was Shego who suddenly pieced things together.

“Wait, are you just back from a mission?”

“Some crime scenes, more specifically,” she clarified, “Wade’s tracking down the culprits. He said it may take some time, but he seems to be enjoying the challenge.”

“Well, isn’t that just great?”

Kim took notice of Shego’s grin. She knew that grin all too well. “Oh?”

“You got the perfect alibi for the afternoon,” Shego told her, “which means… I get to have you all for myself for a _good_ while.”

Kim returned the smirk. It was simultaneously perplexing and fitting how similar it was to when they were about to start a fight.

“So, you get to _have_ me, uh?” she retorted, “And what do you plan to make of it?”

Her grin widened, and there was that _fire_ in her eyes, “The _most_ of it, of course.”

“ _Spankin’_.”

 “Oh yeah,” she said with a wink, “that too!”

* * *

It was past eleven in the night when Agni heard the door of their apartment getting open. She was eating some chocolate chips while watching one of her DVDs on the main room.

“’sup?” she voiced as Kim walked past the couch.

“Hey there,” the redhead replied, and it didn’t escape Agni that her guardian sounded tired, nor the hiss when she sat down next to her.

“Tired?”

“Kinda,” was all the redhead said on the matter, focusing then on what Agni was eating, “That’s not your dinner, right?”

“Nah, just dessert.” she clarified, “Hillbilly and I ordered out. There’s some steak left for you in the kitchen.”

“You two behaved, right?”

Agni rolled her eyes, “We didn’t fight, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Didn’t do much work ‘round the apartment from what I can see,” Kim spoke, noticing the bunch of boxes still piled up around their place, “What did you girls spent your time with?”

“Took your cousin to the Arcade,” the younger girl replied, “gave her a feel for the city.”

“Really?” her guardian asked, actually surprised, “That’s great!”

Now Agni looked puzzled, “Is it?”

“You two will be going together to school soon enough,” Kim reminded her, “it’ll be great if you do it as friends, so you can watch each other’s back.”

While normally she called bullshit on stuff like that, Agni realized that it would be good to be seen with a friend at school, and not like some lonely girl that could be picked upon by bullies that didn’t know what to do with their time.

“Probably should introduce her to Uriel,” she opined, “she seems to be pretty active, so she could probably use a couch like him.”

“That’d be great!” the redhead said, clearly approving of that thought.

“Yeah…” Agni replied, rather uninterested, “we’re still having that training session tomorrow, right?”

Kim was silent for a moment, before leaning back on the couch with a sigh, “Yes, we are.”

“Good.”

Kim eyed the TV show Agni seemed so focused on. It was an anime showing a white-haired man wearing red and slaying demons with twin guns and a sword, one that seemed oddly familiar to her.

“Isn’t that the protagonist of the game you’re always playing?” she asked.

“This is the anime of it,” her protégé replied, “and it sucks!”

“Wow, really?”

“Just an obvious cash-in from the franchise,” the tween added, chewing down some chips, “makes me rather worried ‘bout it.”

“Well, I’ll have a shower.” Kim spoke, standing up and leaving her things in the couch, “Pick up my calls, will you?”

“Sure.”

“Thanks.”

As the green girl was left alone, she began wondering if she should really count on Kim for training her. Sure, she agreed to tomorrow, and Agni doubted Kim would actually go back on her word, but… with as uninterested as she was, how much effort would she put into it?

As much as they tended to disagree, Agni had to admit Joss had been quite right with what she said today. She shouldn’t be depending on Kim to have her way, but instead, she should find her own means to do what she wanted, and if Kim proved to be a poor teacher the next day, well, Agni would just have to find some better options. Who knows, maybe Joss actually _had_ some skill, and if she could at least keep up with Agni, they could be sparring partners too. She wondered why Kim never did that much with her sidekick. He’d probably be far more competent if she had cared to push his limits.

She realized she wasn’t paying much attention to the anime, but oh well. If it wasn’t interesting, it didn’t deserve her attention. She wasn’t even mad when she had to answer a call on Kim’s Kimmunicator.

“Yo’”

“You stole Kim’s Kimmunicator _again!?_ ” Wade questioned.

“She’s taking a shower!” she clarified.

“Oh, well. But I had to tell her something. I think I managed to track down the culprit behind the recent robberies.”

Truth be told, sometimes Agni just _loved_ how Wade seemed to be completely unable to keep his mouth shut.

“Really? Why don’t you tell me and I’ll tell her?”

She noticed Wade raising a distrusting eyebrow. “Really?”

“I’m in a good mood, Nerdlinger,” she replied with a smirk, “Take it while you still can.”

“Alright, but I’ll need you to write down some information and coordinates for her.”

“How ‘bout I connect you to the printer?” she said, getting up from the couch and heading to her bedroom.

“Good idea!” he said, “Everything’s there, from the location to the recent records of the person.”

“Who was it, anyway?” she asked, doing her best to sound simply curious, as she connected the Kimmunicator to the printer besides her computer.

“DNAmy,” he replied, just as a page with said woman’s information was printed before the young girl, including a picture of the woman in question.

“THIS woman?” she asked, unable to believe such a mundane-looking person could really be a recognized criminal.

“Yeah, Kim’s faced her in the past. Been quite a while since she showed up, though.”

“Well, everything’s printed, it seems.”

“Good. Give those to Kim once she’s ready, and thanks, Agni.”

“You’re welcome.” she said with her best smile before they simultaneously cut communication. Once that was done, she opened her desk’s drawer, placed the Kimmunicator there, and slammed it closed. Next, she took out her cell-phone, picking the most recent addition to her list of contacts. She was already reviewing Wade’s documents when her call was picked up.

“’Alo?”

“Hey, Montana!” Agni voiced, her excitement naked in her voice, “Remember how you told me to call ya if I ever got a mission of my own?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone can tell the two videogames that were referenced here, you guys rock.


	4. Yer’ existence’s rip-off!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd make a game out of guessing the references, but I believe they are a bit too obvious.

By the outskirts of Middletown, a bike was parked nearby an abandoned but unremarkable warehouse. The ones parking it, though, were more than justified for their present interest in the dump.

“Yer’ sure ‘bout this, Green?” Joss asked her partner in crime. Deep inside, she could only barely believe she was actually doing this.

“Whatcha chickening out for now!?” Agni retorted, “You said yourself this ugly, fat butt was far from your fake of an idol’s biggest challenges!”

“I know!” she replied, trying to sound as brave as possible. “Ah still doubt she’d approve, though.”

“That’s why we oughta prove ourselves worth it!” the younger pre-teen replied, already looking for alternative entrances. She knew enough about villains to know better than trying the main door.

“Fine, let’s get this over with.” the ranch girl declared, pulling out her homemade grappling hook and firing towards an open window.

“Now that’s the attitude I like!” Agni actually complemented as Joss checked the hook’s hold was solid enough before she started climbing up the wall. She instructed Agni to wait and watch out, until she reached the window and, after surveying the inside of the warehouse for any imminent danger and finding none, stood by the edge of it and kept watch herself, allowing her associate to follow.

“So, we’re inside, now what?” the brunette asked, looking around from the catwalk that connected to the window. The place looked empty at best.

“Well, we can’t exactly contact Nerdestein.” she stated, looking around.

Joss sighed, “That put us at a great disadvantage.”

“Yeah,” the green girl replied, starting to walk down some stairs, “but doing so would doom our mission from the start.”

“Our mission?” she repeated, but only barely above a whisper, which Agni had ignored. Following her to ground level, she began to wonder what exactly their “mission” was.

“Now, this place looks like a dead end,” Agni began, “but I’m pretty sure our intelligence source wouldn’t direct us here in vain.”

“Least he knew yer’ going to pull this off.” she spoke, crouching down and knocking on the ground before standing up, walking a few steps, and repeating the process. “And what’s yer problem with callin’ people’s names, anyhow?”

“It ain’t fun, that’s what!” the raven-haired girl replied dismissingly. “I take it you think the lair is underground.”

“Best chance we got,” the cowgirl said, repeating the process when she suddenly seemed to have a realization. “Oh, wait… ain’t this thang coming with some scanning stuff?”

Agni watched as Joss got a high-tech device from her pocket and turned it on. It looked pretty similar to the one Kim was always carrying around.

“That’s a Kimmunicator?” she asked before biting her tongue upon realizing she actually called that thing by its lame name.

“Eyup!” the brunette replied, “the Tweebs made it for me. I think it was Jim’s idea, but for some reason he wasn’t too happy about giving it to me.”

“Weird,” Agni commented, “but can that thing help us without needing to contact anyone?”

“Ain’t like we could if we tried,” was her ally’s reply, “this thing can’t pick up signal for some reason.”

“Radio interference,” Agni spoke, taking out and unfolding the printed pages from her pocket, “it matches the info we got. This oughta be the place.”

“Let’s hope the scanning can still go through,” she said as she explored the device’s functions through its touch-screen, “now just where was that thing…? Oh, here!”

After selecting something, the brunette left the device on the ground. Its screen then began showing readings based on vibrations through the surface, and painting a digital map of the area in different shades of colors. Joss looked carefully at the results.

“Brighter colors means thinner surfaces,” she explained, “so… over there!”

Picking the device, the girls headed towards the northwest corner of the warehouse. It wasn’t long before they found a metallic plate on the ground.

“Care to do the honors, Sparkly?”

Smirking, the green girl let her right hand burn brightly. “Step back.”

Firing her emerald plasma as a concentrated beam towards the silver surface, she began tracing a circle of burned metal which, once completed, got blasted right on its center, leaving an opening more than wide enough for them.

“Don’t ya know ‘bout subtlety, Green!?” she scolded her accomplice.

“Hush now. This is gonna be easy,” she declared, looking down the hole, “Get me your rope. I’ll go down first and light the way.”

Joss sighed, “Alright, but be careful.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

Joss helped Agni downwards, and the darkness below was soon defied by the preteen’s shining green flames. Not seeing anything to worry about, she just kept descending down the rope, until her feet met a wet surface. Letting go of the rope and illuminating the place with both hands ablaze now, Agni discerned her location as an underground tunnel, wide enough for some vehicles to fit through. One end seemed to be going upwards, so there was probably another entrance around the warehouse, but their goal most certainly had to be the other way around.

“Well, whatcha waiting for, Montana?”

Without bothering with a verbal reply, the farm girl quickly followed the green girl down, retrieving the rope once done with that. With Agni and her light going ahead, the two of them followed the tunnel, careful to any security system and sometimes pausing to make sure there weren’t traps before them. Eventually, they came face to face with a wide, but not particularly sturdy gate.

“Step back,” Agni declared, concentrating the plasma in her hands, “I’ll blast this shit down.”

But just as she was about to, Joss grabbed the younger girl’s arms and held them tightly, forcing the flames down partly out of surprise, and partly for blocking blood circulation in her arms.

“Do ya WANT us to get caught and leashed like a pair o’ animals!?”

Sighing, Agni let her arms hang effortlessly. Trusting the gesture enough, Joss let go of the girl’s arms, which she flexed a bit before turning towards the brunette.

“So what’s _your_ plan of action, Cowgirl?”

“The old fashion way, Ah guess.” she replied, pointing to a corner of the gate’s wall.

Looking up, Agni smirked upon noticing the entrance to an air vent.

“Old fashion’s good enough.”

* * *

“Hello, mom?” Kim spoke once the phone call was picked, “Are Joss and Agni around there?”

Wandering carelessly around her apartment, the late teen listened to her mother’s reply.

“Oh, they did? Uh… did they tell you where?”

A worried frown covered the redhead’s face.

“I see… no, no, that’s fine. Thanks, mom… yes. Love ya too, bye.”

Leaving the phone on the charger, Kim sat down on the couch before reading again the only note Agni had left there before leaving, telling she and Joss would go hang out again. A part of Kim was happy to see the two young girls bonding, but… there was also that bad feeling nagging at the back of her head and demanding her to become aware of Agni’s present location ASAP.

_‘Maybe I should ask Wade about it,’_ she thought, _‘but he’s already busy tracking down whoever’s responsible for the latest crimes.’_

Just then, her face lighted up upon hearing the sound of a key opening a door, the entrance of their apartment to be precise. Knowing who it must be, she got up to welcome her…

“Welcome ba-“

“KIM!” a familiar male voice yelled, “Where’s your K-OH MY GOD!”

“RON!” yelled the redhead before ducking towards her bedroom in an instant.

“Where’s your _clothes_ now!?” he questioned from outside the bedroom.

“S-shut up!” Kim shouted back from her bedroom. Ron could already guess she was blushing (just like he was), but what he never guessed or knew was that, with only two girls living in this apartment, said girls allowed themselves to lose some inhibitions and walk around in their undies if the day was warm enough to make it the most comfortable option.

His attention was then redirected to his Kimmunicator, which was demanding his attention.

A couple of minutes later, Kim exited her bedroom now properly presentable.

“Ron?” she asked, not seeing her friend around.

But then the blond boy, who only now Kim noticed was dressed in his mission outfit, came out walking from the other bedroom in the apartment holding twin devices in his hands.

“KP…” he began, his expression disconcerting, “Why was your Kimmunicator hidden in Agni’s bedroom?”

“It was _what!?_ ” she asked, taking the device from her friend’s hand and being met with Wade’s face.

“Did you get any of the recent briefing!?” the Afro-American boy asked.

“What are you guys _talking_ about!?” she asked confused.

Kim then saw, both in the screen and before her eyes, expression growing more scared by the second. The look was getting mimicked on her own face.

“Guys, what’s wrong!?” she demanded to know.

“Agni…”

* * *

“Would ya _mind_ not stoppin’ all of a sudden leavin’ me with yer ass on mah face!?” Joss complained as Agni did just that for the third time. This air-vent crawling was nowhere as exciting as she might have hoped.

Agni smirked, looking back over her shoulder, “Jealous of my ass?”

“As if ya didn’t got the tiniest one evar!” she retorted, “Why’d ya stop for anyhow? Another exit?”

“Yup.”

Joss sighed, “Anything of interest?”

“Nothing in sight at- wait!” she suddenly cut herself, her voice becoming a whisper, “I think I hear something!”

Carefully, Agni crawled forward and then turned around so both she and Joss could look down the exit sealed with just the typical, barred air-vent lock. In other words, nothing that couldn’t be blasted or melted in a matter of seconds. Now it was not the time for that, though, now it was time to listen closely as an almost _unbearable_ sweet and overly feminine voice became more and more clear to the girls’ ears.

“Careful, careful, it’s very fragile,” the infantile voice said, “That’s it, such a _good_ girl you are!”

“I see her.” Agni whispered, already the very woman they were looking for. She was just as mundane in person as in the picture. Just a black-haired, overweight and rather _quite_ unattractive woman in the young girl’s opinion.

“She’s clearly not alone.” Joss added.

“I don’t hear many footsteps,” the green girl commented, taking a moment to verify as much, and noticing a set of rather heavy steps heading away, “It’s just her and her ‘good girl’, and apparently one of them just left. We can take them.”

The brunette smiled, “You got it.”

Covering her fist in plasma, Agni forced the exit open with one direct hit. Both girls quickly jumped down, finding themselves in a lab room and before the bio-geneticist criminal they were after, standing right before a stretcher which held something covered in white sheets.

“The jig’s up, Miss Frankenstein!”

“Surrender now!”

“Oh my!” Amy Hall exclaimed, looking as surprised of the intruders as someone who found a street cat having sneaked into their home, “How did you two little girls get here? It’s dangerous in this part of town.”

Agni already wanted to give her target a piece of her powers, but even she knew how unorthodox that would be.

“We ain’t lost, DNAmy.” Joss declared, the use of that name gaining a frown from the criminal before them, “We’re here for you and the radio device you’ve stolen.”

“But how did you find me?” she asked, still not as seriously as the pre-teen duo had expected to be taken, “That device was supposed to keep me well hidden until I finished my research.”

“We’re-“ Agni began, but…

“Oh, but I did finish my research early this afternoon.” the geneticist interrupted, her thoughts visibly wandering into recent memories, “I just thought it would take me longer, since this science wasn’t my area of expertise.”

“Er…” Agni began, unsure how criminal hunters were supposed to behave in _this_ sort of situation, “Like I was sa-“

“But will you believe it!” the overweight woman interrupted yet again, “I studied it all in less than two days! Wouldn’t you say I’m just awesome? Oh, I always knew they kicked me out of university just because they were all jealous of my genius!”

“Will you SHUT UP already!?” Agni barked.

“Oh, my! Such manners…” DNAmy commented, “Lil’ girl, you should work on that attitude of yours.”

“I’m not here to work on my attitude!” she retorted, “I’m here to capture you!”

“Right!” Joss added, “You’re gonna need more than some stolen radio device to keep heroes like us from finding us!”

“Yeah!” Agni followed, despite not being quite happy with being labeled a hero, “We’re better than that!”

“Wait a minute, heroes?” the woman exclaimed with an eyed eyebrow, just before conveying realization with her expression, “Oh dear… that outfit of yours!” she followed, focusing on Joss’s tight black shirt and cargo pants, before switching her attention towards Agni, “And your skin color! My gosh, lil’ girls, are you by any chance fangirls of Kim Possible and Miss Shego?”

And with that, all seriousness that reminded in the pre-teen duo faded away, their expression now reflecting hardly anything but their mortification.

“Now SEE what ya earn us!?” Agni yelled at Joss, “Your ass-kissingness got us labeled as a pair of FANGIRLS! I shouldn’t have brought you to this mission to begin with!”

“Why’dya blamin’ me for!? Yer’ the one who can’t make up a single good action speech!”

“Your imitation of the clown disguise your cousin calls a mission outfit is why!”

“Oh, and yours much better? Seriously! Turtlenecks and jeans? And a hoodie to top!? Do you know _anything_ about clothes for movement!?”

“At least mine’s not a rip-off!”

“Yer’ existence’s rip-off!”

“Now, now, girls,” DNAmy called, gesturing with her hands, “There’s no need to fight between friends, you know? Tell you what, why don’t you leave aside this pointless blather, and then we can have a tea party? I’ll bake the cookies myself!”

On her end, Agni was already sick of this woman’s “cute” attitude and that stupid smile. Joss wasn’t far behind.

“Okay, that’s it!” she declared with flaming hands, “’nough of this nonsense!”

“Yeah, didn’t ya hear, lady!?” the farm girl added, “We’re here to retrieve what you stole!”

“But I can’t give it back yet!” the geneticist replied, “I still need it!”

Agni smirked, “Ask me if I care, I dare you!”

“Oh my… you girls leave me no choice.”

At that, the overweight woman turned around, clapping her hands.

“Gilda, baby! I neeeeeed you!”

A roar then echoed through the room. A flash of brown leaving feathers in its trail came from a door behind DNAmy, knocking said door down in the process. Both girls prepared themselves for anything, but the recently arrived figure simply landed between them and the geneticist that created it, body taking a “ready to pounce” stance with wings spread…

“A griffon!?”

“Isn’t she magnificent!?” DNAmy asked, standing beside her creation and petting the creature’s head, “Accurate downright to the last detail! It’s such a wonderful specimen…”

“That thing needs to be put out of its misery…” Agni murmured…

“Now, Gilda,” the woman went on, “There’s no need to go overboard, but I want you to keep these two lil’ girls away from my work until I’m done, got it?”

The creature seemed to give its mommy a questioning look. The pre-teen girls couldn’t help cringing at the sight before them.

“Now, now, it won’t take long! I’m already on the last stage of my project.” she assured the griffon, “Plus, I promise you I’ll get you tuna for this! You love tuna, don’t you, my good girl? Yes you do!”

“Out of all the possible villains…” Agni voiced under her breath, barely audible, her frustration growing more and more as the mad woman cuddled and baby-talked to her unholy creation right before her eyes, “Why, Nerdenstein, _why!?_ ”

Joss, on her end, couldn’t keep herself from hiding her eyes and most of her face with both hands while shocking her head repeatedly.

“Now, you girls play nicely with each other, okay?” DNAmy said while stepping back, “Mommy has work to do!”

Having said that, the woman took hold of the stretcher behind her and dragged it with her through the door Gilda came from, leaving the pre-teen duo with just the life-sized cuddle-buddy to deal with.

“We can’t let her get away.”

Agni lighted up her hands, “No need to tell me!”

“Wait-!”

“Eat this!”

Despite the warning, Agni quickly fired dual blasts of green fire towards the beast, but this one easily avoided them with a jump powered by four legs and pair of wings. Holding herself on the air with steady beats of her unnatural appendages, Gilda glared down at both girls and – seeing they were close enough to one another – lunged towards both of them, deadly claws extended.

Agni and Joss dodged it simultaneously. The former with a roll, the later with a cartwheel. The beast hit the ground, but took to the air once more before the green girl could reattempt to blast her.

“Consarn it!” the farm girl mumbled, taking one of her ropes and readying a lasso with it.

She aimed and threw it just like she learned back at the ranch, but the griffon avoided it with ease. Cursing under her breath, she decided she needed a better tactic.

“Can ya distract it?” she asked her ally.

“Last time I checked, my last name wasn’t Stoppable.” was Agni’s bitter reply.

“Seriously!”

“Geez, _fine!_ ”

Slowly so to keep their enemy where they wanted it, the girls took some distance from each other. Joss signaled Agni when it was enough, and the pale pre-teen fired a simple blast towards the griffon.

Faster than before, Gilda eluded the attack and went for Agni like a thunder. This time, though, her target didn’t roll aside, but simply jumped backwards, letting the beast land just a meter in front of her. Enough to encourage the hunt. With deadly claws and pointy peak, the gryphon went on with the offensive, but Agni avoided it all. Fortunately, she didn’t have to wait long.

One moment, the artificially created creature found itself with a rope around its neck. The next, with a girl sitting on its back.

“Now yer’ up ‘gainst a cowgirl, newbie!” she yelled at the griffon as it began to buck like crazy, “YEEEEEHAW!!!!”

Having had plenty of experience back home, Joss could stay steady on the beast’s back through jumps and shakes without many problems.

When the creature took flight and decided to smash her against the roof, though, things changed…

But stubborn as she was, even after being knocked off and falling ungracefully to the ground, Joss did not let go of the rope. Gilda, of course, began flying around and dragging the cowgirl’s body around, forcing her to slowly loose her grip on the lasso.

Fortunately, Agni stepped in just in time to catch the leash in place of her ally, and – seeing that the griffon was actually strong enough to drag her around, proceeded to roll the rope around one of her hands, and – lighting up – stab her own nails and fingers against the floor, becoming an anchor for the beast.

“Ya gonna stay asleep now or what!?” she called her partner, promoting the brunette girl to stand up.

Moving quickly, Joss circled around the green girl and took hold of the rope once more, but didn’t pull just yet. Instead, she flexed her legs, carefully grabbed the lasso with extended hands and arms, and breathed in deeply…

And at the end of that lungful of air, Agni saw sturdy muscles solidify themselves in the farm girl’s arms, putting all of that horsepower into one strong, concentrated pull.

Up until then, Gilda kept flapping her wings vigorously in attempts to free herself from the leash around her neck, but before she knew it, she had been forced down to the ground in one second. The next one, she was before the troublemaking duo, and a knee and a fist were the last she saw before everything went black.

Both girls panted repeatedly now that they had a chance to catch their breath. They knew better than to lower their guards just yet, though, so they quickly began tying up the knocked out griffon’s legs and wings with Joss rope, in case it’d wake up again.

Once that was finished, they both stared at each other, and though something kept telling them not to smile at each other, that part of their brain was currently buried down by the memories of the recent battle. Seeing a positive response from her partner, Joss raised a fist towards Agni, who returned the gesture before they bumped fists with one another.

“Alright,” Agni said, her breathing regulating itself, “but it’s not over yet.”

“Ya’ said it,” Joss agreed, “Let’s go!”

Without waiting any longer, both girls rushed towards the door and through the corridor DNAmy had left for last time they saw her. The path led them to a door they unfortunately found closed, and there didn’t seem to be an air vent around this time, so the brunette opted for another course of action.

“Wanna do the honors?”

Agni smirked, “Ya bet!!”

Jumping back, Agni focused her plasma in both hands and soon sent the door flying away with the concentrated blast. Once inside, the first thing the girls noticed was one big machine placed in the middle of another lab-like room. The device looked like one big capsule with a red light flickering on its top, but having seen already what DNAmy was capable of, both girls dreaded knowing what could lay inside.

“Girls!” a familiar voice called out, leading the duo to notice the criminal looking down on them  from what seemed to be a control room behind a thick glass window and slightly above their surface.

“Stay away from the Alchemizer, girls!” the fat woman warned them in a… concerned tone? “It’s currently operating and it’s very dangerous in this state!”

“So this is the other stolen device,” Joss commented, “ _Bull’s eye_.”

“What do ya say?” Agni asked, “Do I blast it?”

“Don’t!” the geneticist exclaimed, “Someone precious to me depends on this machine! Besides, you’d endanger yourself by exposing your powers to its effects!”

“A precious someone?” Joss questioned.

“Probably just another one of her monsters!” Agni stated, lighting up her hands, “Not something I’m willing to deal with _again!_ ”

“Please, no!” Amy actually begged.

“Agni, don’t!”

It wasn’t the plea, nor the order, but hearing her ally call out for her by _name_ what made the green girl halt herself before firing away. Through the corner of her eyes, she directed a questioning glare to her partner.

“If even just half of what she says it’s true, we shouldn’t do this,” the farm girl explained, “besides, Ah’m pretty sure someone out there wants this old machina returned to them in ONE piece…”

Agni scoffed, “And what if it’s a trap?”

“Then ya get to blast whatever comes out of there.”

“Fair ‘nough!”

Taking a few steps back, the pre-teen duo simply readied themselves for whatever may come. Soon enough, the flickering red light turned green and went steady. At that moment, the capsule began to slowly open, letting a big cloud of steam and dust fill the room, hiding its content from sight. As a silhouette slowly began to show itself, Agni and Joss threw themselves into the battle at hand.


	5. You’ll regret those words

Pain and numbness ached through his entire body, yet every fiber of his being welcomed it with unfathomable _joy_ , for it meant he was _alive_ once more.

His muscles felt no strength; it had abandoned him, but his pride would not allow him to lie down like a defeated man.

Though in darkness he woke up, soon he was bathed in light, and knowing better than to interpret this as a reception to the afterlife, he forced himself to stand up and walk forward. Two steps taken and he found himself needing to lean against the edge of the opening before him.

Despite the brightness burning into his eyes, he still glared at his surroundings, but could barely tell anything apart through the light, steam and dust. Managing a couple more of steps, he thought he saw two silhouettes through the fog, but then he was assaulted.

A rope surrounded his body, and five times that before he could even react to it. Held tight by it, the next thing he felt was a kick on his sides, and then the cold, hard floor as he landed ungracefully on his back and complains escaped from his body.

“Now STAY down if you know what’s good for ya!” he heard a childish voice order him.

Alas, he was way too prideful to accept orders from just about _anyone_ , and even in his unfortunate state, he glared at his oppressor with hate naked in his eyes, but that soon vanished as he managed to get a glimpse of the person now standing on top of him. To call it disturbing would be a surprise.

He knew that skin color, that dark hair, those green eyes and that emerald, glowing fire all too well. But he knew they didn’t belong to a _child!_

“Who… are…!?” he began muttering, his voice coarse and his throat dry, and unable to decide what to ask, he ended up yelling simply: “SHEGO!?”

The surprise he saw in the child’s eyes gave him some satisfaction. Partly for catching her off-guard, and partly because this meant he wasn’t as crazy as the kid made him think for a moment.

_“What!?”_ the child barked. Only now he realized it was a girl of around ten and few…

“This ruffian knows yer’ mom!?” another voice, and he noticed another young girl in the room, this one brunette and holding the end of the rope that had captured him. More importantly, though, he knew well of the outfit the brunette was wearing, but knew nothing of the girl’s own identity.

And only once he was past registering their appearance did their words click on his mind.

“Wait, what did you say!?” he asked the brunette.

“Beg yer pardon?”

He gulped down to moisten his throat, “Did you call Shego… HER. _MOTHER_?!”

The green girl’s feet pressed tightly against his chest, and the plasma-covered hand got dangerously close to his face.

“So what if she _did_ , uh?” she asked maliciously.

His mind demanded a halt at that point. As he pieced things together, the old knowledge combined with the new, he dawned upon a realization he did not like…

“By the power of the YONO…” he cried out, hitting the back of his head against the ground, “how many _decades_ have I been away!?”

On their end, the two girls were now giving each other some confused glares.

“What’s this freak going on about?” the green one whispered to the other.

“How in tarnation am I supposed to know!?” the other replied, “Why don’tcha interrogate him if you wanna know!?”

“Good idea!” she declared, bending over to grab the hairy dude by the collar of his black gi, “Hey, abomination, do you have a name!?”

A name, she asked? Of course he had a name! It may not be the one of his birth, but it was most certainly the one representing this identity and this girl would soon learn to respect it!

“My _name_ , little brat, is MONKEY FIST!!”

“Oh, _yeah!_ ” the brunette exclaimed in realization, “One of my cuz’ enemies. Now I remember…”

Monkey Fist was fairly sure he knew who was said “cuz”, and wondered for a moment how could it be that relatives of those two women could stand here as allies. But the reason aside, the fact was undeniable, which meant only one thing: They were nothing but an obstacle in his path.

“Okay, Mr. Fisted Monkey,” Shego’s daughter went on, “Question number two: What’s your association with the wife of Dr. Frankenstein?”

He raised an eyebrow, “Who!?”

She clicked her tongue, “DNAmy!”

At the mention of that name, his eyes went wide in fear.

“S-she’s here!?” he asked, actually sounding like in panic, “Oh LORD! Someone please bury me back underground!”

The brunette then pulled on the rope holding him, gaining his attention.

“The only place yer’ gonna be buried is in the calaboose!”

The irritation of the situation was overwhelming, yet it came followed by the satisfaction of being able to feel these emotions again. The combination only fed into his pride, which commanded his following words.

“Watch your words carefully, little girl! You may have me tied up, you may have me on the ground, and indeed, as circumstances dictate, you have caught me in quite a disadvantage… but I am Monkey Fist! And whatever you attempt against me, I swear upon the Mystical Monkey Powers, you shall pay it dearly!”

“Blah, blah, blah!” the green girl retorted, “Seriously! Don’t you villains EVER shut your stupid mou-ACK!!”

“What'n blazes-!? Watch out!”

“My monkeys!”

Before anyone could react, over a dozen of monkeys wearing ninja outfits had stepped into the room and started a fight. The first one kicked the young girl off their master, and soon both pre-teens were fending off against the majority of them while a couple of monkeys stayed behind to free Monkey Fist from the ropes.

“Ya filthy pests!” the green girl exclaimed, lighting up her hands and unleashing a wide blast of emerald flames around the ground. The monkeys within reach, however, stepped away just in time, while the ones further away came closer, jumped over it, and delivered a combination of kicks that felt far stronger than what a monkey should be capable of. Regardless, logical or not, soon she found herself thrown against the closest wall.

“Green!” her brunette partner called, avoiding a monkey’s attack before managing to kick it away. She took out another lasso and managed to capture a monkey in it, but before she could swing it around against its allies, the monkey combined efforts to make the captured monkey and the holding rope roll around her, turning her weapon into her own confinement, and it wasn’t long before she was assaulted and subsequently thrown against her ally, ruining the green girl’s effort to stand up.

To the surprise of Monkey Fist, who didn’t expect the little girls to be this stubborn, they forced themselves to stand up once more, but that’s when the monkeys unleashed a rain of kunai, all carefully aimed to not hurt the girls, but to nail them against the wall by the clothes.

“Are ya freaking horse-shittin’ us!?”

“FUCKING monkeys! Where did they come from!?”

“My apologizes, girls!” a familiar voice spoke.

The pre-teen duo then saw DNAmy come into the room from the one opposite, followed by another two of her creations, no less. The first had the build and basic movement of a gorilla, but its skin, lower limbs and head were those of an elephant. The second one was an oversized mantis, but with the head and end of limbs being those of a fox, plus the mammal’s tail.

Needless to say, with these two monsters and the monkeys, the girls were evidently reconsidering their options.

 “These are my dear Monty’s lil pet monkeys,” Amy explained, “which I took care of since his last defeat, speaking of…” she then walked towards Monkey Fist, “Are you okay, darling?”

“Pet monkeys?!” the green girl exclaimed, “What kind of idiots are you taking us for!?”

“Oh, well,” she went on after helping the man back to his feet, “I did artificially enhance their strength and reflexes during the latest months, sorry if that hurt.”

“For once,” Monkey Fist began, “I’ll recognize your contribution has been most welcomed, Amy.”

“Oh, you’re welcome, sweetie!” she replied with a blush, “Now, come on, let’s wrap things up so we can get you home safe and soundly.”

“Ain’t ya forgetting some people!?” the brunette questioned.

“Now, you two have been very naughty girls,” DNAmy began, leaving Monkey Fist in the care of some of the monkeys, while approaching the duo which she seemed bent on treating like hardly more than a pair of kindergarteners that had broken some furniture or something alike, “So now, you two are gonna behave and wait here ‘til I send someone to pick you up and take you back to your parents. Is that clear?”

The scowls on their faces spoke volumes about how “clear” the matter at hand was…

“You gotta be fucking with us…”

“Now, watch your language, little lady!” DNAmy scolded the badmouthed green girl, “Just behave like a good little girl, and you’ll be back home safely before you know it.”

“Home safely?” Monkey Fist repeated…

“Is something wrong, Monty?”

Wrong, she asked? WRONG? Oh was the gratefulness short lived. This woman’s mind was most certainly wrong in more than one way! After what he went through… after the humiliation… there’s no way he could let things as they were!

“I want them dead…”

Three pairs of female eyes went wide.

“W-what, Monty dear?”

He frowned, “I _said:_ I want them _dead!_ ”

“Oh shite, oh shite!” the brunette began cursing, pulling as hard as she could to free herself but with little results. The blades were buried _deep_ into the walls.

“B-but Monty!” DNAmy explained, “Don’t you think that’s too drastic!?”

“Too drastic?!” he yelled back, “Go get yourself cursed, turned to stone, buried underground and kept from the world for lord knows how long before you dare determine what’s too drastic! Dare just _attempt_ to suffer the _humiliation_ I have, and **then** see if you can tell me I’m being ‘too drastic’!”

“But these are just little girls!” the woman retorted.

“Little girls that are in some way or another connected to Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable, of that I’m sure!” he spoke, walking a couple of steps towards the imprisoned girls, “Their corpses will deliver a perfect message of my feelings to them!”

“Feel _this!_ ”

Having managed to extend one hand enough, the daughter of Shego concentrated enough power in said hand to fire a straight shot towards Monkey Fist.

Said shot, however, got parried and dissipated into nothingness by a simple hit of the resurrected criminal.

“Just as feisty as your mother, uh?” he taunted her, “You’ll need more than that to match me, little brat…”

“Go blow yourself!” she spited back, but for Monkey Fist, the fear was evident in the child’s face. It gave him satisfaction.

“Monkeys!” he exclaimed, gaining the attention of his small army.

“Monty, please!”

“Draw your weapons!” he commanded, “Make a good message of these two insolent imbeciles!”

The monkey ninjas were all immediately armed with small swords, sai, kunai and all sorts of deadly blades. A second that felt longer than any other tensed everyone through its torturous silence, which was abruptly and violently broken by a loud, trumpet-like scream of the gorilla-elephant hybrid. Looking back at it, everyone barely caught the sight of a rope around its neck before the giant suddenly got pulled backwards and forced to fall hard on his back, the impact making the whole room tremble. All that the creature could see after that was one foot raised high on the air before it descended faster than it could even see it. After that, everything went instantly black for the hybrid.

“You wanted to give me a message?”

A shiver ran down everyone’s spine as the person responsible for knocking out the giant in practically one blow raised her green eyes to look at everyone in the room. Anger was simply naked in the redhead’s eyes…

“Well, I’m right _here_ , Fiske…”

Despite the uneasiness she awoke in him, he still made himself chuckle.

“Well, if it isn’t Kim Possible… and oh, Ron Stoppable as well…”

“This time you’ve crossed the line, Monkey Fist.” the blond boy expressed with a seriousness that was simply uncharacteristic of him.

“You both look as… _young_ as I remember you, curiously enough,” he spoke humorously, “Now, I appreciate the warm welcome back, but I’m afraid I’m in just no condition for a party. However…” he went on, and with one gesture of his hands, all the Monkey Ninjas were almost immediately standing before him, “I’m sure that between my monkeys and DNAmy’s pets, you’re certain to have someone to dance with…”

As the creatures lined up between the crime-fighting duo and their targets, Kim and Ron exchanged quick glares.

“You take care of the monkeys and I take care of the Praying Fox?” Ron suggested.

“What about Agni and Joss?” Kim asked. Silently cursing herself a moment later. She caught the glimpse in Monkey Fist’s eyes that meant she just revealed the girls’ names to him.

“Got that covered.”

“Alright, let’s go!”

The Ninja Monkeys and Kim jumped into action first. The redhead, having already heard about their unnatural strength, made it a point to avoid and/or twist their attacks rather than take them head on. Soon this led to finding herself surrounded by them, but right after the first’s one attack, he grabbed it by the tail and spun it around close to the ground, knocking everyone off their feet, before, in the following spin of the wriggling monkey, smacking them all one by one.

The Praying Fox soon tried to intervene, but before he could actually attack, something pink had jumped onto his face and attacked his eyes, making him back away in pain.

“Good job, Rufus!” Ron exclaimed, rushing in and tackling the hybrid creature. The monster fell in its side, but quickly rolled and got back onto its many legs, faced by the blond boy, “I’ll take it from here! You do your thing!”

As the fight went on, Agni and Joss could only stare at it in a mix of awe and envy. Their attention only diverted when they saw Monkey Fist move away from it, weakly enough that DNAmy decided to help him by lending a shoulder.

“Where’s ya runnin’ to now!?” The brunette asked.

Monkey Fist gave them a deadly glare, “Consider yourselves lucky that I have higher priorities than your demises…”

The green girl growled, “You’re just a _coward!_ ”

He frowned.

“You’ll regret those words, little girl.” he said before turning around and keeping on his path, “I promise you that.”

As both criminals left the room, the girls’ attention returned to the fight. Their feeling of incompetency rising once more, until one of them felt something climbing around their legs.

“Rufus!”

“For once, pest, I’m glad to see you!”

Climbing up to Joss’ shoulder, he began pulling on one of the kunai holding her against the wall. Between perseverance and a bit of creativity, it soon began to give in…

On her end, Kim was starting to reconsider her options, for the monkeys weren’t just stronger than usual, but also far more durable. While she was holding the upper hand so far, she already earned herself a good number of bleeding cuts all over her body. Nothing that would make her stop just yet, but if this kept going on this way…

And on his part, Ron wasn’t doing any better. Though he had an idea of how he could neutralize this creature, its many limbs kept getting on his way, and without someone to help him distract it, going around it seemed plain impossible. He just wasn’t the one who could do anything…

But lo and behold, help arrived to him in the form of a rope capturing the Praying Fox’s head and holding it by its neck.

“Joss!”

“Now’s yer chance!”

Deciding she was right, the blond boy hurriedly went around the hybrid creature, jumped on its back, and got to hold it by its torso tightly enough to constrict its breathing. As with many insects, the Praying Fox was unable to reach for his own back, and could only writhe furiously trying to set himself free from its oppressors. This only led to falling on its side once more, but this time, it couldn’t get up. While Ron kept holding it tightly, Joss began running around it and tying up all of its body with her ropes, soon leaving the creature completely neutralized. Even when Ron finally let it breathe in peace, it couldn’t do anymore but lie where it was and yip.

Meanwhile, Kim’s fight with the enhanced monkeys was only going from bad to worse. Her tiredness was adding to her blood loss, and her reflexes were paying the price for it, earning her more wounds. And now that two monkeys had taken hold of her arms, nothing could save her from the rest forcing her to the ground and piling up on her…

Nothing, that is, except for rapid-fire plasma that began blasting monkeys away one by one.

“Miss me, ya filthy rats!?” Agni exclaimed, hands extended and ablaze on both sides.

“Hey!” Rufus complained from her head.

“Not now!” she replied, getting back to the action.

She fired a concentrated blast towards the monkeys before her, but much to her surprise, they all avoided it in a big, collective jump. Kunai extracted from their clothes, they attacked once more before even landing, raining down their weapons upon the young girl.

But all that reached Agni was one intense tackle that sent her, Rufus, and the tackler rolling round the floor. Only upon stopping did she notice, atop her, that it was Kim who had saved her and the mole-rat…

…earning four kunai into her flesh…

“KIM!” she yelled, as the redhead kneeled up, contemplating the wounds. One kunai on her arm, one in her forearm, and two on her leg. All on her right side.

Gritting her teeth, she removed the one near her shoulder and threw it towards the monkeys. One of them deflected it with a katana, but it halted their advance towards them. Seeing as the redhead stood up once more, and the blond boy and brunette joined her, they took a defensive stance.

But no defense they had would have helped with what followed.

It wasn’t a simple blast of plasma as they were already used.

It was an _avalanche of green fire._

With a war cry emerging from the deepest of her throat, Agni stepped forward; her clothes’ sleeves burned up to her elbows and her arms a pair of relentless flamethrowers. The monkeys tried to avoid it any way they could, but the flames would catch up to them one way or another, and with every step the girl took, they kept running out of space. Soon enough, they all were simply running away with their fur ablaze, until none was left in the room.

Ceasing the fire, but without letting it leave her hands, she was about to chase after them, when a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

“Hold it right there!” Kim yelled at her, making Agni drop her flames.

Much to the green girl’s surprise, the redhead’s wound had already been tended to, with stained bandages covering where the kunai had landed.

“Y-you o-”

“ ** _I_** will take care of this.” Kim interrupted her, “You and Joss are gonna follow Ron back to the Sloth and _stay there!_ You hear me!?”

“But-!” Agni began, but before she could say another word, Kim pulled and pushed her towards her blond sidekick and Joss. “H-hey!”

“Are you sure about this, KP?” Ron asked, stepping between his friend and the girls.

“I’m taking Rufus with me,” she declared, extending her healthy arm for the mole-rat to jump from Ron’s shoulder to her, “We’ll be fine.”

“Alright,” he said with a nod, before focusing on his little friend, “Watch her back, buddy.”

“Aye aye!” Rufus saluted.

“You take care of the girls!” she said before spinning around and leaving through the same door the criminals and the monkeys left through.

“Wait-!” Agni called, but once again she was held by the shoulder.

“C’mon!” Ron ordered.

* * *

Once outside, Ron and the girls had to go around the abandoned factory until the Sloth came into sight. At that point, Ron commanded the girls to trot with him to it, but only once he reached the vehicle and looked back did he realize one of them didn’t follow such command.

“Agni!” he called, leaving Joss in the car and running back to the green girl, who simply waited there standing in the middle of the driveway, looking back the way they came, “Agni, what’s wrong? Let’s go!”

“What’s wrong?” she repeated, turning around to face him, “Your hussie’s what’s wrong! In her HEAD! What was she-!? What were _you guys_ even thinking!? We need to go back!”

“Agni…” he spoke, “Kim _knows_ how to take care of herself.”

“But what if there’s something else waiting for her!?” She questioned, “What if that crazy woman has other monsters in store!?”

“She…” he began, but then his eyes diverted from the pre-teen to somewhere behind him, and his expression lit up, “Well, whadya know? She’s just fine!”

Turning around again, the pre-teen saw the redhead walking towards them with DNAmy two steps ahead of her, her arms apparently held behind her back while Kim held one hand there and the other in the woman’s shoulder.

Agni’s first reaction was a quick _‘Wow, that was fast!’_ flashing through her head. The second one, she caught herself dead in her track after two steps.

_‘Did… did I just almost rush in to **HUG** her!?”_

“I’m sorry, dear,” she heard the bio-geneticist say, which brought her out of her thoughts, “I only had my creatures steal the Alchemizer so I could help my sweet Monty,” she explained.

“And you stole the Radio Device to keep yourself hidden?” the redhead questioned.

“Exactly!” she replied cheerfully, “Oh, but even that wasn’t enough. Nothing gets pass you, does it?”

“I wish that was the case…” she said as they reached Ron and Agni, eying the last.

“Where’s Monkey Fist?” Ron asked.

“He escaped,” Kim informed, “along with his monkeys.”

“It’s okay, KP. You did your best.”

“I know. Let’s focus on taking Amy to the authorities.”

“Awww, well.” DNAmy spoke, “I guess I should have seen it coming.”

“Should I call the police?”

“Wade already contacted Global Justice,” Kim replied, “They should know what to do with Amy’s creatures. In fact…” she went on, looking up, “I think they are here already.”

Turning around, Ron saw a helicopter approaching their area.

“Good call, KP.”

“Could you take care of Amy for a minute, Ron?”

“Uh?” he replied, puzzled for a moment before things clicked in, “Oh, okay.”

Leaving the bio-geneticist in her sidekick’s hands, Kim walked towards her protégé.

“Agni…”

“Y-yeah…”

Without another word, the two of them headed towards the Sloth in silence.


	6. What now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, this might be the chapter I'm most proud of.

After dealing with DNAmy and Global Justice, Kim and Ron simply went back to the Sloth where Joss and Agni were waiting. The whole trip was coldly silent. Ron occasionally looked back to the girls, but Kim kept her eyes focused on the road. First stop was the Possible household. It was past one in the morning, but James and Anne were still awake, waiting for Joss’ arrival. Next was Ron’s house. He said goodbye to both Kim and Agni and simply walked there from the Sloth.

The rest of the trip towards Kim’s and Agni’s new apartment was spent without a word being said, nor upon arriving. Kim simply got off the car and Agni followed suit. Same thing when entering the building and riding the elevator. Said ride, particularly, felt long. Partly because of the established tension, but also because time seemed to literally slow down for the younger girl when realization dawned upon her.

She had already noticed before, Kim’s deep, nose-exhaled sighs, and the flexing of her hands, turning them into tight, sweating fists before relaxing them as much as she could. But only now she saw it, between a sight that drew her attention and another tight grip over nothing, only this time Agni could see the reason behind these gestures.

Kim was trembling. Barely notable, well-disguised and kept cool, but Kim Possible was _trembling_.

And Agni was familiar with trembling, _very_ familiar. Enough to know that it didn’t mean just anger, or any emotion in particular. Trembling was but the very first symptom of _losing control_. It was the first indication that your emotions were SO strong, that you were literally losing rational control over your body to them.

But Kim was pretty much Miss Control! Kim was the type of person that could remain cool under a storm, running away from a stampede of angry rhinos, fighting over a hundred henchmen, or even caught in the middle of warfare itself! Kim always had things scheduled ahead of time. Kim always had a proper response to any situation. Kim was someone Agni had never seen nor had ever _expected_ to see at the verge of losing control.

And SHE was responsible for this.

_…so the drama!_

She didn’t even immediately realize she had left Kim hanging after the elevator stopped. She did then follow her to the apartment, but every step she felt more and more like a prisoner walking towards her sentence. She already knew, she wasn’t getting out of this without some, admittedly, well earned punishment, and she was already bracing herself for the nastiest spanking she might ever get.

Once inside, she simply waited in the main room while Kim closed the door. Now finding her surroundings surprisingly interesting for reasons _obviously_ not connected to the tension she was feeling, she happened to notice that some lights and even the TV had been left turned on. Her guardian didn’t even take care of that before departing to rescue her.

Well, this was it. Kim hadn’t directed a single word at her ever since they left the lair, but that couldn’t be delayed any longer now, could it? Any moment now. At the very least, this would put an end to this unbearable tension…

“To your room.”

Wait… WHAT?! Did she hear that right!? That couldn’t be it, right? If all this tension was just for this then… then… it almost felt insulting! Was Kim up to some joke!? Oh, she would show her!

“I-!” She began, turning around to face her guardian, but…

But meeting Kim’s eyes stopped her dead on her track. A shiver ran down her spine. Those green eyes had never been so scary and so… so… so deep! She felt like staring upon a bottomless abyss. She should have known, Kim was up to NO joke.

“Go. To. Your. Room.”

Nodding repeatedly with lips shut tight and deciding that “To your room” was downright awesome as far as punishments could go, Agni turned around and practically dashed to her bedroom, quickly closing the door behind herself.

_‘What now?’_ she wondered while leaning against the door. Going to bed sounded like the logical thing to do (and it _was_ late), but she didn’t exactly _want_ to.

She peeped through the keyhole. Kim was just cleaning around the house. Typical Kim, always the responsible one. Once she was done, she disappeared into the kitchen, and the house felt silent.

She leaned against the door once more, and slowly slid down.

_‘What now?’_ she asked herself once more.

There was one thing she could not deny: She screwed up tonight. She screwed up _big time_. Stole a mission and didn’t get away with it. Almost got herself and Joss killed. Had to get her ass saved in the end. Could this night get _any_ worse?

_‘Better not wonder THAT now…’_

She sighed, resting her head between her knees.

What had gone wrong? She and Joss were managing just well. They infiltrated the base, defeated that gryphon all on their own. And then reached the villain’s project, where things suddenly snowballed into disaster. Was there really nothing they could do on their own? Were she and Joss really that far behind Kim’s level?

_‘Goddamnit, what does she have that I don’t!?’_ she wondered with resentment, _‘Bitch won’t even share it! After this, I can sure as hell kiss our training session goodbye!’_

Suddenly and startling, someone was knocking the door she was resting against, which made her stand up in what was practically a jump.

“Agni?” Kim called.

_‘Oh crap,’_ she thought, _‘don’t tell me… she does have something in store!?’_

She grabbed the doorknob, gulped down, and then opened it, wondering only then if it wouldn’t have been a better option to just go to bed and hide in sleep. Upon seeing Kim, though, the redhead didn’t seem particularly angry.

“Yeah?”

“You… you didn’t suffer any serious wounds back there, did you?”

_‘That’s it!?’_ she thought with a frown, trying to catch some hint of deception on the redhead’s face, but finding none.

“Well?” Kim insisted.

“N-none!” she quickly replied, “Nothing got to me. And even if it did, you know I heal faster than normal people.”

There was a moment of silence between them. Kim and Agni kept staring straight into each other.

“Alright,” Kim finally said, “You should go to sleep already.”

Agni rolled her eyes.

“Night.” she said, and then closed the door.

* * *

She had fallen asleep rather fast, which was unusual of her. Yet that paled in comparison to how quickly she woke up.

“What was all this FOR then!?”

“Don’t you care about what may happen!?”

Two voices. They were arguing, although by the tone of it, “arguing” was probably an understatement. But the important thing was that she _knew_ those voices!

Throwing the sheets and covers aside, Agni practically jumped out of the bed and headed for the door. She didn’t dare open it just yet, though, but instead she crouched and peeped through the keyhole once more.

As she expected, the people in the apartment’s main room were none other than her guardian and – as unexpected as it was – her own mother!

Normally, Agni would be thrilled to rush in and welcome the older woman with a hug, but as things were right now… she doubted it was a good idea to reveal she was awake.

Were they arguing about her? Not that she believed herself to be the center of the world, but after tonight, it wouldn’t surprise her. Hell, she could hardly think of another reason for her mother to show up here all of the sudden like this. Was Kim trying to get Shego to help her so that together they could talk her out of getting involved with Kim’s missions and everything that had to do with it?

_‘No…’_ she reflected, _‘Kim wouldn’t do something like that, would she?’_

But as if to answer her question, Kim spoke…

“Shego…” she began, taking a step back. She lowered her face and held it in her hand for a moment. Agni had never seen her so frustrated, “You know how I…” she followed, but seemed to stop herself to think. The following line was disconnected, “Shego, please… I’m desperate here…”

Desperate.

She’d never heard that word from Kim. Like the loss of control, she felt this was something else that Kim was above of. Something that just couldn’t _get_ to her. Yet here it was, coming out from the redhead’s mouth.

Agni had never before realized she had subconsciously put Kim upon such a mighty pedestal.

Nor did she ever imagine it would be _her_ who’d knock said pedestal down.

In one night, her actions brought Kim into nearly losing control of herself and subsequently falling into desperation. Now she was seeing the consequences of her own decisions.

And she might as well become an angel before she could possibly know why if anyone asked her, but the sight alone was downright heart-wrenching to watch…

“P-please,” Kim stuttered, “I need-”

“Forget it, _Possible_.” her mother replied.

For less than a second, even as limited as her sight was through the keyhole, Agni managed to detect a hint of surprise on her guardian’s body language. It might have been a limb trembling violently or her respiration stopping for a moment, but after that slight moment, it was soon hidden, buried beneath the raising anger. Her hands tightened into shaking fists, her shoulders were tense and her teeth cringed tightly.

As much as she idolized her own mother, Agni couldn’t help sympathizing with the redhead at the moment. Just a few months ago, the two of them were hardly anything but enemies with a sense of respect for each other at best. And just now, Kim had gone as far as practically beg something out of her former, and still at times enemy.

And said friend and enemy just spat on her pleas before they were even spoken.

“I am _not_ going to tell my daughter to quit being who she _is_!” Shego declared in a tone of voice that made it clear that there was no room for argument.

Now, Agni could fully agree with that statement and would personally go as far as to fight to defend it, but… was that _really_ what Kim was asking out of her? Was that really _Kim’s_ intention? While Agni had plenty of quarrels with her guardian ever since they started living together (and before), she always counted on the redhead having her best interests in mind, which – thinking back – was probably the reason she had subconsciously began to think so nicely of her. But the point was: She couldn’t believe Kim would want something like _that_ for her…

If such was the case… Agni had to seriously reconsider whenever staying with Kim was a good idea or not…

“Do you even realize who you’re sounding like!?” Shego questioned, bringing Agni out of her thoughts.

The young hero raised her lowered head just slightly to make eye contact with the older woman. Agni was certain that, just like she did, Shego was able to catch a hint of confusion and questioning amidst the anger reflected in the redhead’s green eyes.

“You’re sounding just like my fucking mother!” she answered, but didn’t end it there, “You know? That bitch who forced Agni to hide her powers, her origins and even her _skin color_? The harlot who told me to never come back to my own goddamn _home_!? The arrogant whore who wouldn’t let us have a say regarding the future of MY daughter!? You know the one?! ‘cause that’s the asshole you’re sounding like!!”

Half of Agni was downright impressed – and not in the good way – by her mother’s cursing.

_‘I mean, seriously, holy shit!’_

The other half, however, felt it was so ridiculously exaggerated that it was borderline satire.

More importantly, though, was that, because that she wasn’t completely taken aback by it, it led to a very important question: Did Shego realize that she was directing all of the hate, _and_ the insults, she had for her mother, straightly at Kim?

How was Kim going to take _ALL that!?_

Looking at her and noticing her right fist was now shaking _violently_ , Agni found herself gulping down in expectation of the answer.

“Well, no fucking _wonder_ she felt that way!” she finally replied, and Agni knew… she knew she was witnessing a side of Kim she had never seen before, “Why wouldn’t she!? After all…”

_‘Oh, shit…’_

“…you’re NOTHING but a danger and a bad influence to your own daughter!”

So taken aback was she by those words – far more than by the things Shego had said – that she couldn’t help looking away for a moment. Less than a second later, she heard a sound, and looked at the scene again, practically gluing her body to the door.

What she saw made her entire body shake…

Her mother was standing where the redhead previously stood at, with her right fist extended. As for the Kim, her back and head were just finishing sliding down the wall…

Shego had hit Kim so violently – in the face no less – that she sent her crashing head first against the wall.

And Kim, who Agni once saw standing back right after surviving an explosion from less than two meters away, just laid there.

Worse yet? She didn’t know if it was upon the first shake, or the second – which happened the second she thought Shego might have broken Kim’s neck, but due to her movement, Agni had accidentally opened and pushed her bedroom’s door!

_‘Shit, oh shit!’_

So startled she was by her own action that she fell back on her butt. The door had just barely open, but enough that she could see Kim clearly. The unbelievable part of this, however, was that apparently they hadn’t heard her yet.

Whatever instinct of her that could have told her to move away from there was already muted by the tension of the situation…

“You… YOU…” she heard her mother yell, but couldn’t see her.

Seriously, though. Were they somehow, actually counting on her remaining asleep with all that yelling? Or were they so caught up in their argument that they had actually forgotten about her?

“I…” Kim began, her voice quivering… “I only want to… I only want for Agni to…”

But as she was saying those words, her head turned back from the position the punch had left it in, and raised up… and then her green eyes opened as wide as they could…

“ _Agni!?_ ”

“WHAT?!”

_‘…shit!’_

To confirm what the redhead stated, Shego took a couple of steps and came into Agni’s limited view through the opening of the door, effectively noticing her daughter as well.

Well, that cat was out of the bag. What NOW, of all times!? Should she apologize? Should she hide? Should she go out and face them? Just what was she supposed to do in this situation!?

“H-how long have you…!?” her mother began, but then turned to Kim, “How long has she been there!?”

Kim didn’t reply, but Agni could practically read a “How could I know!?” in her face.

For a moment, the three of them remained in tense but absolute silence. The only thing they could do was look at each other in confusion and expectation, as if hoping the other would speak first. On her end, Agni tried to find a path to follow by asking herself one important question.

_‘What do I **want**?’_

Yet, try as she might, no answer would come to her.

Finally – which in retrospective was probably to be expected – the first one among them to finally do something was Kim.

“A-Agni…” she began, standing up and starting to walk slowly towards the barely open door, “P-please, d-don’t… just don’t jump into conclusions. Whatever you heard, you… we-”

But as she was passing right by Shego, the older woman suddenly took hold of the redhead by the neck and forced her against the wall. It was the second time Agni witnessed such event happening before her eyes. Yet her feelings on the matter were completely different from last time…

“Whatever she heard WHAT, eh!?” the international thief exclaimed, “Are you just gonna start taking things back because she’s now present!? Well, I-!”

“STOP!”

Before _any_ of them even realized it, the pre-teen had rushed out of her room and took hold of her mother’s leg, looking up at her with begging eyes. On her end, Shego had never forgotten her fury so quickly. Her grip softened, and Kim fell flat on her butt and against the wall once more, coughing roughly.

“P-please!” Agni begged, hardly believing her own words, “d-don’t fight…”

Shego shook her head, bringing the hand that previously held Kim’s neck to her own face. Her eyes seemed lost, as well as her search for words.

Kim rubbed her sore neck, and then looked up to the criminal woman, but didn’t gain her attention. Her eyes then fell on Agni.

She did return the attention.

Their eyes locked into each other for a moment, but then Agni’s wandered across the redhead’s body. Right now, Kim was wearing just some summer pajamas, which hid none of the wounds she had earned just hours ago.

Wounds she took for _her…_

She gulped soundly. Never before did she think she’d be doing this, but… she had to say it…

“She saved my life…”

There. She did it. She actually took Kim’s side before her own mother’s…

And even knowing and comprehending the reasons she did it, it didn’t help the pain building in her chest…

Shego took a step back, freeing herself from her daughter’s grip, and then another. Agni reached out for her, but her legs wouldn’t move. Her mother just kept avoiding eye contact…

“I…”

Despite her attempt to remain cool under the situation, it didn’t escape the younger girls’ eyes that now, Shego herself was trembling…

“I-I need to go…”

Without wasting another second, she turned around right after saying such words, perhaps a bit too hastily, and started walking towards the door.

Agni wanted to shout for her to wait, for her to stay, for her to… to forgive her… but her guilt wouldn’t let her. Her guilt muted her when she wanted to scream the most…

_‘I betrayed her…’_ echoed in her mind, over and over like a mantra that was consuming her, _‘I betrayed my own mother’s trust…’_

And Shego just kept slipping further…

…further…

…and further away…

…away from her…

…out of her life…

…her own… mother. She was already at the door and opening it.

“Don’t…” echoed through the room, both softly yet pronounced.

Nobody looked at the speaking one, but they didn’t escape her words.

“ _Don’t you DARE walk outta your daughter’s life again!_ ” Kim yelled with all of her might. The whole residence might be waking up now because of her, yet she still yelled her heart out in the middle of the night.

Shego simply remained where she stood: By the door and holding the doorknob, but without walking away nor turning around either. Every passing second was tormenting. Every breath, painful. Agni could actually _hear_ Kim’s gritting teeth and was subconsciously preparing herself to attempt halting _her_ if she went after her mother. But…

“I’m not,” Shego – thankfully – finally replied, “I… I’m not gonna abandon my daughter… ever again. I won’t run away…”

“Mom…” escaped Agni’s lips.

“But…” her mother followed, “I… I can’t, not like this, I just… I don’t want to hurt y… either of you two… more than I already have…”

Deep inside, Agni actually felt incredibly relieved by those words. She wondered if Kim felt the same way…

“I’ll come back,” she added, actually turning around to look at her daughter straight in the eyes, “I promise.”

And with that said and done, Shego finally opened the door and left the apartment. Agni remained where she stood, hearing the fading footsteps in bitter relief.

She let out a deep breath through her nose… and then focused on Kim, who was still sitting right beside her…

Her head was lowered…

Her shoulders were shaking…

Agni kept telling herself it wasn’t possible… but then she saw tears falling down to Kim’s legs…

_‘Everything’s possible for a Possible…’_ she reflected, _‘even crying…’_

In one night… she saw her guardian losing control, stressed and frustrated beyond her limits, and now… crying… and the trigger of all this was Agni herself…

She just… didn’t know what to make of her relationship with Kim any longer…

And yet, she walked up to Kim, took her head between her hands, and slowly led it to her chest. Kim placed her hands on her shoulders and for a moment tried to push her away… but soon gave in, letting her arms surround the little girl and burying her face into her chest. Her tears dampening the dark blue nightshirt.

Agni just held her there, softly stroking her vibrant hairs, and letting her cry her heart out…


	7. I’m not good with kids

She had slept in. It wasn’t usual of her, but it wasn’t like she felt particularly eager to get up, she’d guess.

_‘No point moping…’_ she told herself in order to gather the will for starting a new.

Throwing the covers aside, Agni sat up and subsequently got off the bed, suiting her feet into the slippers waiting for her in the floor. Rubbing her drowsy eyes, she walked out of her room, getting bathed by painfully bright sunlight coming from the main room’s windows. If anyone asked her, the day was just _too_ beautiful for the sour mood it was shining upon…

Some (rather mild) cursing coming from the kitchen caught her attention, and she headed there to find Kim, still in the same pajamas as last night, throwing a waterlogged dishcloth atop a fire born atop the stove. When the flames died, she quickly closed the gas knob.

“Are you okay?” she asked, catching the redhead’s attention.

“Just… _great,_ ” she replied, frustration naked in her voice, “can’t even prepare a simple breakfast, it seems…”

“I can make breakfast,” Agni said. She wasn’t sure _why_ she said it, but her mind had turned her thoughts into actions before she could think them through.

“You… you want to?”

Agni shrugged, “You can do your part and prepare the table.”

“O-okay…”

Leaving the cooking to Agni, Kim grabbed the tablecloth and went to place it on the main room’s table. Back in the kitchen, her protégé was taking some things out of the refrigerator.

“What’s with that boxed bottle you’re holding prisoner here?” the younger girl asked.

“Oh, that? It’s a bottle of wine, just an old gift.”

As soon as Agni left the refrigerator, the redhead stepped in to get the apple juice. After leaving it in the table, Agni was already finished, so the two of them simply brought everything to the table together.

As they sat down, Agni took a quick look at her guardian. It was hard not to notice, even if Kim was trying to hide it with her hair over her face, that she was now sporting a sore, pronouncedly black eye.

The mood was certainly tense, though frankly, hardly anything else could be expected. They just began eating silently, but that was pretty much just ignoring the elephant in the room.

Pondering over her feelings, the truth was that Agni just couldn’t find it in herself to stay angry at Kim, even if there were things she knew the redhead wasn’t “right” about. Really, though, big part of her conflict was with herself, about what she could and couldn’t do, how much she knew of what she could and couldn’t do, and what consequences could being wrong bring about.

She sure got a good taste of _that_ last night…

But… her own personal conflicts weren’t gonna improve her circumstances with her guardian. Kim was looking at the food, but didn’t seem particularly eager to eat. Not wanting to follow into the depression, Agni picked up a toast, spread some butter into it and offered it to her roommate.

“Here…”

Kim simply took it from her. Not saying a word, but offering her a smile that, for what was worth, felt genuinely kind. She took a bite from it, and then Agni made her own toast with caramel to eat. That’s when her guardian spoke.

“Agni…”

“Mh?”

“I’m not sure how much you heard, but… whatever was said last night, I… I know it was probably very harsh, but… please don’t take it to heart.”

The pre-teen simply looked at the redhead expectantly. She didn’t feel like she had much to say on the matter, so she simply waited for her custodian to go on.

“I… I was too stressed out last night, and some of the things I said, I… I know I can’t take it back, but I swear to you, I didn’t really mean it. That… that was my anger speaking, getting the worst out me…”

“Mh…” Agni pronounced with a nod, enticing the redhead to go on.

“I… I don’t think your mother’s nothing but a bad influence to you, I don’t want to dictate your future, nor do I think you’re an idiot…”

“You called me an idiot?” Agni asked out loud, actually surprised that Kim might have said that.

“I…” Kim began, and seemed to be remembering last night’s events before she finally replied, “No, I… I didn’t, really. But your mother put it that way…”

“Uh…” Agni voiced, wondering if she should inquire further. Conversation seemed pretty civil and composed like that, but she knew there was always the risk.

“I just said…” the redhead went on, “I just said that you… didn’t know better.”

Well, leave it to Kim to answer the question nagging at her mind without it needing to be asked.

“Oh,” Agni said, finding herself far from offended by the statement, “It’s okay.”

“What?” her custodian asked.

Agni took one final bite at her toast before going on, “I mean… if anything, last night proved you pretty much right…”

Kim blinked for a couple of times before taking a worried, alarmed expression.

“T-that’s not what I meant!”

“It’s okay, really.” Agni insisted, “Just…”

“…yes?”

“…never mind.”

“Are you sure?” Kim asked, purely out of concern.

The black haired girl simply nodded, reaching out for another toast.

In her mind, she did actually have an important question in mind, but she knew… she knew this was probably the most loaded question she could possibly ask. Loaded enough to put everything at stake, and looking around her, she had her home, her own, comfortable place, a life without needing to hide. She had a _lot_ to value. Did she really want to put it all at risk? Wouldn’t it be wiser to just play it safe and preserve the good things she got today? After all, even if things might be a bit tense right now, the mood should lift up sooner or later, and she could go on with her recently acquired and much better everyday life, right?

Right?

…

…fuck it.

“Kim,” she called anyway, playing it safe be dammed.

“Yes?” the redhead asked, thankfully sounding “okay” for whatever that was worth. It was a plus, and at the moment, she’d take whatever victory she could get.

Agni took a deep breath…

“Do you wish I’d change?”

There, question of the billon dollars asked.

And wow, it sure got quite a reaction from her guardian. Kim looked at her with surprise naked in her eyes, as if questioning how could her protégé possibly be thinking that.

“I…!” she began.

But then she stopped, broke eye contact, and pondered for a moment before, like Agni, taking a deep breath and finally speaking.

“I just want you safe…” was her answer, “Is that asking you to change?”

They looked into one another’ eyes, reaching nothing but the same lack of answer each one felt. Eventually, they lowered their sight almost simultaneously, and without anything better to do to escape the depressing mood, they both resumed their breakfast quietly.

Soon enough, the toasts Agni prepared ran out, and as conclusion drew near, Agni began picking up the dishware and, once she had nearly all, she took them to the kitchen. Kim finished eating the last toast, emptied her glass, and then picked her platter and remaining cutlery and followed her protégé, finding her, surprisingly enough, doing the dishes.

For a moment, she simply stood there, plate, glass and butter knife still in her hands, watching the younger girl at work like it was the most spectacular sight to behold. Sometimes Agni would look back at her, occasionally biting her lips, but without saying anything. But with a minute having passed and the situation remaining the same… well, she simply _had_ to break the ice _somehow!_

“You can leave those there,” she told Kim, nodding towards the side of the sink, while berating herself in her mind. _‘Gosh! Is that the best I can do!?’_

“Uh? Kim voiced, as if brought out of a trance.

“The dishes,” Agni clarified, “just leave them there.”

She blinked a couple of times, then shook her head abruptly. Sighing once more, Kim left the dishware aside, but then walked up to her roommate and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Agni…”

Pausing her activities, the younger girl looked up at Kim.

_‘Oh fuck, I’m deep ship, aren’t I?’_ her mind rambled while she forced herself to composedly ask: “Y-yeah?”

So much for _composedly_ , damn it!

“You… is… is there anything you _want_?”

“Wha, _what?_ ” she asked back in confusion. In her mind, the answer to that was affirmative, but… “Why?”

“Because you’re not grounded.”

Two seconds later, the sound of shattering ceramic echoed through the kitchen. Agni took a look at the remains of the plate she accidentally dropped the moment she heard those words, but then focused back on the person who _said_ them.

“ _WHAT!?_ ”

The green-skinned pre-teen had no idea if it was for what happened that unfortunate plate, or if it had anything to do with her reaction, but she noticed Kim had to suppress a giggle.

“I said… you’re not grounded.”

Well, there was only one word she could say to _that!_

“… **why**!?”

Rubbing the younger girl’s shoulder with the hand that was still there, Kim took and released one last sight before answering.

“Because it’d be incredibly hypocrite of me to ground you…” she explained, then broke eye contact, “And… I’m tired of it.”

Tired of what? Of being an hypocrite? What… just, _what?_

“What ‘s it you want?” Kim asked, looking at her again.

“I…” the younger girl began, breaking eye contact herself time, “Well… I… wanted to check on your cousin.”

Kim actually smiled at that.

“You can go if you want.”

Smiling nervously, Agni nodded, “Yeah, just… lemme fix this mess and finish this.”

She simply nodded. “Alright.”

She still helped her protégé clean the mess of the broken plate, though, and threw the pieces into the trash bin herself, leaving the rest of the dishes to the pale girl.

Once all that was done, Agni went to take a quick shower, get properly dressed (after Kim berated for wandering around the house butt naked), pick up her keys and usual stuff, and finally head for the door.

The image of her mother standing right there last night came to her mind…

Somehow, it made her turn back and check on Kim. The redhead was simply sitting on the sofa, still on her pajamas, and her sight lost and apparently so her thoughts. The TV wasn’t on, and there wasn’t anything served on the table either.

She was just… there…

Agni sighed.

“Kim?”

Her guardian turned to face her, “Mh?”

“Uh… what are you gonna do?”

Turning back and without any enthusiasm in her voice, she simply said: “Probably just unpack more of the boxes in my room.”

“O…kay.” Agni replied, opening the door, “See you later.”

“Have a nice day.” was the last Kim said before the door was closed.

* * *

Their new apartment wasn’t so far from Kim’s family house, but the trips sure took a while, specially on foot. This had given Agni some time to think about things. That’s why, upon reaching the Possible Household, she actually kept walking and ringed the doorbell of the next house in the neighborhood.

Fortunately, the door was answered by the person she wanted to see.

“Agni?” Ron called, “Hey! Nice seeing you here!”

As unbelievable as she wanting to see _him_ was…

“H-hey-“ she began, but then got interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Green is here?”

Much to her surprise, Joss appeared from behind Ron, holding his baby sister in her arms.

“Cowgirl?”

“What are ya doin’ ahere?”

“What are YOU doing here?”

“Oh, she’s helping me look after Hanna.” Ron explained, “My parents won’t be back ‘til tomorrow’s night, so I oughta watch for my little sister.”

“Waaaait,” Agni said, “does this mean you’re busy?”

“Well, duh!” Joss answered.

“Fuck you, Montana.” she answered back as she began pacing around, “Craaaaaap…”

“H-hey, what’s the problem?” Ron asked, “Is it something serious?”

“It’s your husband,” the pale girl replied, “She…”

Suddenly shaking the head she was nervously scratching, Agni stopped pacing around, clicked her tongue, and faced the blond.

“Look, could you just… go and make her company? Cheer her up somehow? Maybe get her out and take her, I dunno, to Bueno Nacho? Gosh, can’t believe what I’m _saying_ …”

“Well, uhm… is it okay if I bring Hana along?”

“I… guess?” she responded halfheartedly, “It’d be better if you could focus on her, but… I’ll take whatever I can get.”

“If that’s yer case,” Joss spoke, “How ‘bout ya help me watch over Hana?”

Agni’s eyebrow twitched slightly.

“… _what_?”

“We can take Hanna to my uncles’ place and look out for her with aunty Anne.” she explained, “That way, Ron can go and meet mah cuz.”

The farm girl said all that with a smile on her face, but for Agni, all sorts of alarms were going off on her mind. She looked at Joss, and then at the toddler in her arms. Hanna smiled at her, and Agni felt like wanting to panic.

_‘Get. That. Creature. AWAY. From me!’_ she wanted to scream.

Seriously! Didn’t Montana got to know her at ALL after all this time!? Granted, it wasn’t _that_ long, but STILL! In her personal opinion, you’d have to really hate a child if you were willing to let them _anywhere_ near HER!

No, no, Nonononononono. This was a no go. This shit was simply not gonna fly anywhere. This was NOT happening. If she could do but one thing right for the child, that was talking Joss out of this MADNESS right away!

“Good idea, Joss!” Ron commented. GODdamnit, this was _anything_ but a good idea! Had everyone just lost their minds!? “Think you can handle this for me, Agni?”

_‘Well, WOW Goldilocks! Here I thought I could no longer think any less of that pile of cheese and mole-rat shit that you’ve got for brains, but sure! Leave it to you to prove me wrong, why the fuck not!?’_

She had to stop this right away. The only reason she wasn’t yelling everything her mind was downright _screaming_ was because she still hoped that somehow Ron might help Kim, so she couldn’t exactly go and be an asshole to him, now could she? Still, she had to find herself a way out of this urgently!

“I… don’t…”

Well, nice going there, idiot! That sure delivered the message perfectly!

“Don’t what?” Ron asked.

“I-I’m not good with kids!” she said suddenly.

There, that should do it! You wouldn’t leave a toddler in the hands of someone who wasn’t prepared to deal with the responsibility, right?

…right?

“Oh, come on, I’m sure you can handle it!” was Ron’s reply.

OH, **_GAWD!!!!_**

“An’ ‘sides,” Joss added, “if ya want Ronald to help ya with somethin’, shouldn’t ya be willin’ to do the same?”

At that moment, the pale pre-teen stared _deeply_ into the ranch girl’s aquamarine eyes, because she was sure starting to suspect she was doing this on purpose or something! Case in which she didn’t know whenever to feel proud for or outdone by the brunette’s sheer evilness.

“So… what do you say, Agni?” Ron asked.

_‘No, no, NO!_ _Put an end to this nonsense before it’s too late!’_ her mind screamed at her, which her mouth properly translated as: “O…kay?”

“Great!” Ron cheered.

_‘Someone fucking kill me…’_

“Be right back, I’m gonna get ready for leaving.”

With that said, the blond left both girls at the door and headed back to his bedroom. Agni stared back and forth between Joss and Hanna, before settling on Joss for a moment.

“You really hate me, don’t you?”

“Uh? Whatcha talkin’ ‘bout?”

Was she really that clueless?

Agni sighed, “…never mind.”

Deciding to follow the shorter girl’s advice, Joss instead focused on Hanna, slightly lifting the baby and approaching it to the pale girl, and neither of them realizing said pale girl was slowly turning even paler.

“Hanna, meet Agni,” the brunette said, “she’ll be taking care of you with me.”

The toddler then smiled at her new “babysitter”. Dear lord, this was a nightmare turned reality…

“A… Amy!” Hanna called.

Agni frowned, “It’s AGNI.”

“Amy!” the baby cheered and giggled, “Amy!”

_‘Oh my fucking lord…’_ her mind went, _‘tonight we serve tragedy for dinner… and that’s if we REACH dinnertime…’_

“Okay, I’m done,” Ron announced as he came back, with a new shirt on and a bag on his back, “I’ll contact Monique and then meet Kim. Joss, you remember where’s everything you need for Hanna, right?”

“Don’t worry!” Joss replied with a smile.

“Alright, then I’ll… oh, Agni!”

She blinked nervously. Could this get any worse?

“Yeah?”

“Here”

He extended his hand to give her something. She did the same, and immediately regretted it, for now she had the late teen’s hairless pet standing atop her hand.

“Rufus, watch over the girls while they watch over Hanna, ok?”

“Uhuh, OK!” the mole-rat replied, then jumped to Agni’s shoulder, and gave his owner the high five.

_‘Could this get any worse?’_ she had wondered, _‘I just HAD to ask, right?’_

“Alright, see ya later, girls!”

Agni watched Ron as he walked away for a moment, but soon her mind began dwelling on all the possible ways this day could go oh so terribly wrong now. Her train of thoughts was interrupted, though, by Joss calling at her.

“Here!”

Without giving her any option, Joss practically shoved Hanna into Agni, forcing the younger girl to hold the toddler or else she’d fall down to the floor.

“Ah’ll go pick up mah things, Hanna’s things, and then we go.” the brunette explained, “Jus’ wait for me ahere!”

And _now_ Agni was left alone with the toddler in her arms. She looked down at the child, who simply smiled back at her, calling her “Amy” once more. She had never felt so confident about one thing…

_‘Worst. Day. Ever…’_

* * *

Somewhere in the outskirts of Middletown, in a lair placed atop a mountain, Dr. Drakken was paying delicate attention to his work. Many thing could be said about the mad scientist’s sanity, but the focus and dedication he could place on his work was nothing short of admirable.

“Almost ready…” he murmured.

The temperature was just right, the processes were synchronized, and the timing precise. Even with so many years doing science and other things, the progression of transmutation and metamorphosis of matter was still enchanting to look at in his opinion, especially when approaching the desired results.

“Aaaaand DONE!” he said as the machines in front of him sounded their finishing rings and turned on their green lights. Two small doors opened simultaneously, leaving the products of his delicate work upon his reach. “Perfectly prepared combination of Mommy’s cookies and Cocco Moo!”

Taking out his apron, he wore a couple of oven mitts and picked the trays, placing everything into a more elegant tray which he then took with him out of the kitchen, heading towards Shego’s quarter.

It hadn’t escaped his attention that, throughout the entire day, Shego had been pretty sour. Borderline depressed, he’d dare say. He had no idea why, other than it certainly had something to do with the urgent trip she took last night. If he had to take a guess, he supposed Shego’s daughter – of whom he had learned about just some months ago – must have had something to do with it, but he was oblivious to the details.

Regardless, though, while they may not be related, he considered Shego to be family (for which he was trying to get to know and befriend his sidekick’s child, with… mixed up results up to this point), so regardless of the complications of their relationship, at the end of the day, he cared deeply for her and, whatever she was going through right now, he wished to help her by at least lifting her mood. Maybe he could even bring a smile to her face!

He paused before the green woman’s room, cleared his voice, and raised his hand to knock on the door.

But then the door suddenly opened, slamming him, knocking him down and throwing all of his cooking down to the ground.

“Oh, no…” he lamented, looking at his hard work ruined and spilled all over the floor. Only a moment later he registered his sidekick walking steadily away, “Shego!”

“Not now, Doc.” she spoke firmly, her pace not ceasing in the slightest.

“B-but Shego,” he called again, standing up and running after her, “wait!”

“I said: NOT. NOW!” she yelled, turning around to look at him with eyes that stopped him dead on his track. “I got work to do.”

With that said, she spun over her heels and kept on walking.

“Work?” he wondered aloud once Shego was too far to hear him.

Careful to avoid attracting attention, he followed his sidekick until they reached the hangar of the lair. Shego walked towards one of the hover-pods in there, sat on the driver’s seat, and began getting it ready.

“Uh… Shego?” he called, daring approach as she was getting ready to leave, “When will you be back?”

She let out a sound between a sigh and a growl, but actually graced her boss with a reply.

“Probably tonight. Tomorrow top.” she said as the hover-pod started to float, “Just gonna go ‘n vent some stress.”

Dr. Drakken took some steps back and the aircraft departed from the lair. She watched it fly away until he could no longer see Shego in the horizon. Deep in her heart, he was praying she’d be safe…

* * *

Maybe it was her usual dedication and stubbornness, or maybe it was that she was unusually focused on this task to avoid thinking of anything else. One way or another, the point was that Kim was already working on the last few boxes left to unpack.

“Okay… this one now…” she thought out loud, sitting down on her bed with another box between her legs.

She opened the box, and right then, any hopes of keeping those troubling thoughts out of her mind vanished in an instant.

Slowly, her fingers picked the framed photo and brought it closer to her eyes. The picture in it was taken by her mother just months ago, the day after Agni had officially moved to the Possible household. It depicted the little girl, Shego, and Kim herself all standing together.

And smiling…

Her grip tightened around the edges, for her hands were shaking and she feared losing this one little treasure…

Just like she was losing _them_ …

Suddenly, an unexpected but familiar noise echoed through the room, making her jump on the bed. Thankfully, her reflexes allowed her to save the frame and photo. Taking a deep breath and pulling herself together, she stood up, left the picture on her bed, and went to answer the doorbell.

“Ron? Monique?”

“So there you are, my girl!” her best girlfriend said, “Finally got to see your new place!”

“Hey there, KP!” Ron spoke, “How’re ya holding up?”

“Just… fine,” she replied, moving aside to let the path clear, “you guys wanna come in?”

“Tempting, but no,” Monique replied.

“What?”

“We came to get you out, Kim.” Ron answered, “Come on, grab your things and let’s go out. Just the three of us.”

Kim looked aside, “I’m… not sure if I’m in the right mood for it.”

“Kim, _please_!” Monique began, “How long has it been since the three of us got to hang out like good ol’ friends, uh?”

“Well…”

“Yeah, Monique’s right.” Ron added, “KP, this is non-negotiable, you’re coming with us to Bueno Nacho!”

The redhead sighed, rubbing her forehead, but… somehow, she actually felt her bitterness slowly fading, as if it was a dark cloud getting pushed aside by strong rays of sunlight.

Such were her friends…

She lifted her head, smiling at them.

“Alright, just let me get ready.”


	8. Time to talk

At the possible house, Agni and Joss sat on the couch with a very enthusiastic toddler laughing and cheering as the three of them watched a show about some colorful, silly looking, dancing singers that kept repeating the same stupid thing over and over. Wouldn’t Agni had already been informed the show was known as “The Flippies”, she’d baptize it as “The Retarded Freaks Show”.

Needless to say, Agni had never wanted to kill herself so badly.

“If this is what we’re raising the future generations with, humanity is doomed.” she commented.

“Oh, come on,” Joss retorted, “didn’t you also watch _anything_ like this when you were her age?”

“If I did, I can proudly say my brain was smart enough to suppress the horrible memories.”

Despite their arguing, Hanna hardly noticed any of it. She simply kept her focus on the Flippies, clapping her hands to the rhythm of their songs, or occasionally jumping to the table in front of the couch and doing a little dance there, cases in which Rufus – who was eating some crackers laid there – had to be careful to avoid being accidentally step on. Agni didn’t know whenever to find it amusing or nauseating.

“Ah’mma gonna get us some drinks,” Joss declared, getting from the couch, “You take care of Hanna.”

“…what!?” she asked, but Joss was already walking away.

She looked at the toddler, slightly less annoying to stare at than the show, or so she thought, until the baby sister returned the stare, smiling widely at her. Mind you, that alone would have been fine by her. Obnoxious, but fine nonetheless.

But _then_ …

“Amy!”

Almost like a mockery, Hanna somehow got the _genius_ idea of crawling towards the pale green girl – whose name apparently she just wouldn’t get right – and sit atop her lap, setting herself there. Agni simply watched in silence as the baby made herself comfortable atop her legs and just kept clapping to the show’s music. And kicking her caretaker’s knees every once in a while…

Maybe not because of the act itself, but with the incredulity of the context alone, this had long ago crossed so many lines that shouldn’t be even approached…

“Cute!” Rufus commented. Agni really wished she could just kill someone by glaring at them…

“Well, will ya look at yerself!” she heard Joss commenting. Like she probably should have seen coming, the farm girl soon caught them “red-handed”, she’d… guess?

“S-shut up!” she replied, for once finding a reason to actually put her focus on the Flippies. Yeah, she was definitely going insane from this…

“Here,” the farm girl said, offering Agni a milkshake.

“Oh, cool-ACK!”

Alas, probably assuming the drink was for her, Hanna tried to reach for it, hitting the glass and dropping the content all over the pale girl.

“For the beloved love of-!”

“Watch your mouth!”

And despite their stress, the little Hanna only giggled at her babysitters’ reactions and antics.

Seeing the murderous rage boiling in her friend’s eyes, Joss spoke quickly.

“Ah’m… certain there’s some shirts of mine you can use.” she told her, “Whadya think of doin’ that?”

“Delighted to!” she practically yelled, pushing Hanna aside, standing up and walking away as fast as possible.

Seriously, _anything_ that she could make use of was more than a perfect excuse for her if it meant staying away from that toddler and that stupid TV show, hopefully still in time to save some of her brain neurons, assuming that show didn’t infect them all already.

Minutes later, she came back wearing a new top. Joss had almost forgotten that one. She hadn’t worn that for months.

“Ya picked _that_ old rag before anythin’ else?”

“Did YOU just pick a smaller size of _every_ outfit your cousin owns?”

“They are hand-me-downs!”

“Oh, great, that probably means I’m wearing _another_ shirt of her’s!” she complained, before looking around and noticing someone was missing, “Wait, where’s the monster?”

“Look who’s talking.”

“Oh, ha-ha. Seriously! Did you just lose sight of her?”

Rolling her eyes, Joss replied by simply pointing upwards. Looking up, Agni’s jaw practically fell off her mouth as she watched the toddler running around the roof as if the laws of gravity didn’t give a damn about her.

“You GOT to be kidding me!”

“What?” the farm girl retorted, “Weren’t ya told she could do this sort o’ horsery?”

“I was _hoping_ they were joking!”

“Yea’, well, they weren’t” she replied, “But we _should_ get her down, though.”

“Why don’tcha pick your lassoh and do the trick?”

“Ya want me to lasso a _baby!?_ ”

“Okay, point, but what do you suggest then?”

Joss thought about it for a moment, “Well, you’re light, and I’m strong.”

“And…?”

“A’here,” she spoke, kneeling down on one knee and putting her hands together near the floor, the palms facing upwards. Basically, it was an invitation to take a jump out of her help.

“Oh, yeah, sure, just leave the dangerous part to me, why don’t ya!?” Agni replied, but she still walked away only enough to run towards her babysitting partner and, as planned, jump to the roof with the brunette’s quick lift, catching up to the running baby.

“Gotcha!”

“Go, go, go!” Rufus cheered.

But when she caught Hanna by the arm, she didn’t get to drag her down back to the floor.

“Whoooaaaaaaa!!!!”

Instead, it was Hanna who got to drag _her_ around the roof, her speed not decreasing in the slightest, as if Agni didn’t weight anymore than a feather.

“Montana!”

“Uh… yes?” Joss replied, her head spinning as she followed the amusing spectacle with her sight.

“Go get your lasso!”

“Uhm… okay!”

Almost a minute later, or by the time Agni felt more than ready to throw up, Joss returned with her ropes in hand and ready to shoot.

“Be ready to pick it!” she shouted, already spinning the leash over her head, “Don’t wanna rope lil’ Hanna!”

“Just do it already!” she yelled back, “Least ya want my breakfast all over the place!”

Without wasting another moment, Joss threw the ropes towards the roof around the area she predicted Hanna would run by. The baby happened to be somewhat faster than she calculated, but Agni managed to catch the rope with her leg, its circled end tightening around her ankle.

And the next thing they knew, Joss was being trashed around the living room just like her babysitting partner, only she was also occasionally clashing against the wall. Though she refused to let go of the rope, she could only focus on not breaking anything. That didn’t keep her, though, from accidentally pressing a switch as she clashed against yet another wall.

But said switch happened to activate the roof’s fan…

Needless to say, soon enough both pre-teen founds themselves tangled in ropes and pressed tightly around the spinning fans, while Hanna held to the hanging end of the rope and yelled cheerfully as she spun around the room by the rope, without a single care in the world.

“Montana.”

“Yea?”

“I hate that baby…”

* * *

 “Can’t say I blame ya, girlfriend,” Monique spoke, “What with your moving to your own place and everything. Congratulations, by the way.”

“Thanks,” Kim replied, “It’s almost done, though, thanks to Ron and Joss helping me.”

Ron smiled, “Aww, it’s nothing. Just a couple… dozen sore muscles, perhaps?”

The redhead  giggled, but then focused back on her Afro-American friend.

“I’ve thought of calling you, but then I heard from Ron that you’ve been pretty busy.”

“Yup, I’ve been,” she replied, but then the person before them moved away, and they were at the end of the line, “But I’ll tell ya ‘bout that later. Now, let’s order our food.”

“Man, it’s been so long since I last came to Bueno Nacho!” Ron said, stepping forward, “Almost like… three days, the horror!”

As Ron began ordering out, Monique asked her friend another question.

“So… how’re you dealing with what you gals eat?”

“Well…” Kim began, her right foot moving around the floor, “Frankly, we’ve been mostly ordering out, or coming here, much to Agni’s chagrin.”

“Mh… you should probably do something about that.”

“I’ll think of something, I always do.”

“Your turn, girls.” Ron told them.

Without delay, the girls ordered their food.

“So, ya wanna know what I’ve been busy with?” Monique spoke.

“Sure.”

Their food was served quickly enough, and they began walking to find a table.

“With someone _else_ that, I’ve learned, _really_ likes you.”

* * *

“I… think she mus’ really like ya.” Joss commented, seeing as Hanna once more crawled to sit atop Agni’s lap.

“…what did I do to deserve this?”

“Oh, hush,” the brunette retorted, “don’t ya know it speaks good of ya when a baby likes you?”

“ACK!” the pale girl yelled as the toddler in her lap began pulling at her hair, “I don’t particularly _feel_ liked right now!”

Joss stood up from her seat and walked toward the empowered girls. Catching Hanna’s attention with what Agni could only think of calling shenanigans, she got her to release her babysitter’s hair and instead play with her, an opportunity Agni wouldn’t miss.

“You take care of her for a moment,” she said, practically shoving the baby into her partner’s arms, “I need a break.”

“Oh, sure, run away, why don’tcha?.”

“Don’t make me badmouth you in front of the baby, will ya?” she said as she stepped down the couch and walked away.

Feeling rather thirsty because of the recent events, Agni headed towards the kitchen, when she met with a familiar redhead.

“Feeling better?” Anne asked.

“Yeah… everything stopped spinning,” she replied, “Uhm… thanks for helping us earlier.”

In all honestly, Agni was actually a bit surprised with herself for being able to openly thank someone like that. She then shook her head, she was tired of thinking of _these things_.

“What… are you doing?” she asked, noticing that Anne was working on something.

“Just preparing some drinks for you, girls.” the brain surgeon replied, “After all of hard work, you guys deserve it.”

“Oh…? Oh, great!” she replied. Just what she wanted. Anne was really thoughtful…

She shook her head again. Comparing Kim’s mother to her own was some of the worst of _these things_ she didn’t want to think about.

“How’s babysitting going, by the way?” the redhead asked.

“Awful,” she replied, remembering the fan incident. They had needed _Rufus_ to come and help them! How much lower was she gonna fall in just one day!?

“It looked to me like you were doing pretty good,” the redhead replied, “Hanna seems to be having fun.”

_‘For now,’_ Agni thought to her insides.

“Did Kim give you pointers for this?”

She blinked, “ _Her?_ ”

“What? You didn’t know?” Anne asked, turning to look at her for a second, “There was a time during which Kim’s ‘missions’ were mostly babysitting or pet retrieving jobs.”

“Oh…” was all she could think of replying. You do learn something new every day, after all.

“Something on your mind, Agni?”

Well, so much for trying to avoid thinking about _these things_ …

She sighed, “Can I… ask you something?”

“Of course, dear.”

“How… how was it for you… when your daughter began doing these world saving stuff?”

Just the fact that Anne took a moment to herself before answering made Agni realize she just might be in for a surprise.

“That… was a difficult stage.” the mother finally said.

This was getting just dirty and dirtier…

“Difficult?”

“James and I had plenty of arguments, some you could even call fights, with Kim being the cause.”

…okay, the “might be in for a surprise” thing? Scratch ‘might’ and add ‘big’ near the end, in capital letters.

Seriously! Ever since she learned about the girl who could do anything, Kim Possible, all she ever heard was nothing but praise for everything the redhead did. Well, unless it came from a super villain’s mouth. But apart from that, everything she learned seemed to indicate that, wherever Kim went or whatever Kim did, she was always appreciated and loved by everyone.

So magnanimous…

So ideal…

So…

So opposite of _herself_ , who was made to hide her gift, and everything that made her _special!_ While Kim’s unique talents were appreciated by just about everyone, Agni was practically berated and even punished for her uniqueness, especially if she ever made use of it. When she first learned about Kim, Agni could hardly believe someone like her even _existed!_ It was like Kim was the antithesis of everything she had grown to believe!

But… could it actually be that, once upon a time, Kim went through the same _she_ did!?

“For REAL?”

“Yes, for real,” Anne replied simply, “Memories are… pretty grim, though. I’m not fond of recalling them…”

“Were you… actually harsh to Kim?”

“Don’t get me started…”

* * *

 “I just couldn’t stop scolding her! I even told her: Girl, this is going into your head even if I have to shove it up your ass in order to get it there.”

Kim and Ron laughed animatedly at their friend’s anecdote.

She… never realized how much she missed this. Just hanging out with friends, like there wasn’t a care in the world…

“Man,” Ron began, “Bon-Bon can be such a case…”

“Mind you,” Monique interrupted, “she passed, and with flying colors.”

“She did!?”

“Aced _every_ single test, even chemistry!” she replied, leaning back on her seat, “I tell you, that girl really has a lot of potential. Shame she doesn’t see it.”

“Why do you think is that?”

“If you ask me, GF, I… kind of think she doesn’t _want_ to see it.”

“Someone as ambitious as Bonnie? That’s weird.”

“Oh, Potential Boy speaking!” Kim said between giggles, but then turned to Monique, “Still, that was really nice of you, helping out Bonnie with her studies and graduating for real, despite how mean she usually was to us.”

“Oh, T.N.O.I., Kim, who do ya’ think that was my inspiration for this?”

“Uh?”

“It was you, girlfriend. What with what you did for your rival, Shego, and the beautiful relationship you’re developing with her baby girl because of it.”

At that moment, Kim’s expression grew grim and she looked away. It didn’t escape Monique’s attention, but she pretended not to notice and went on.

“When I thought of that, well… it’s humbling, you know? Made me think that if I can do something to help Bonnie, I should, especially since I knew she was having a rough time studying.” she explained, “But I mean… well, I don’t think me helping her _changed_ her, but… I do feel myself closer to her a bit. Does… that make any sense to you?”

“It does to me!” Ron declared, “But… when you say closer, you don’t mean…?”

“What?”

“You and her ain’t gonna start dating like Kim with… you know, are you?”

Monique looked perplexed for a moment, but then actually smirked.

“Oh, can’t tell you that, my boy.” she said, “I’d hate to break your sexy _fantasies_...” and then she winked.

“What? I wasn’t-! HEY!”

Monique giggled, but then looked at Kim, “C’mon, girl. Here we’re baring your ex-boyfriend’s wet dreams to the world and you’re zoning out on us?”

“Oh… I’m sorry.”

Monique sighed, “Wanna talk about it?”

“Uh?”

“Your problems, girlfriend.”

“Yeah,” Ron added, actually sounding serious, “I know you can do anything, Kim, but… don’t you think you owe it to us to let us help you every once in a while?”

“’sides,” Monique followed, “it ain’t like we haven’t spotted the new looks you’re carrying.”

Biting her lip, Kim caressed her sore eye and let her hand rest there for a moment. After taking a deep breath, she pushed her mane back, fully showing her face and its marks to everyone.

“It’s… complicated…”

Ron shrugged, “So?”

“Yeah, we got all day.”

Taking another deep breath, Kim raised her eyes to face her friends.

“Alright… thing is…”

* * *

“I screwed up,” Agni declared, arms crossed, leaning against the wall and looking down, “I ruined things with your daughter, with my own mom, and… with just about everything.”

“Now, now…” Anne said, “Aren’t you being a bit overdramatic?”

The young girl frowned at her, “You think I’m exaggerating?”

Anne finished preparing the new milkshakes for the pre-teens before turning to answer to Agni.

“Come with me.”

Without saying a word, Agni followed the redhead back to the living room. Dear god, just starting to listen to the Flippies’ songs again was nauseating.

They sat down on the couch before the tables, where Hanna was dancing again. Agni silently congratulated Joss once she noticed the brunette was actually keeping a very careful watch over the toddler.

“Now, Agni, if I may ask…” Anne began once she gave both girls the milkshakes, “Do you trust me?”

Agni was just about to take a sip from her drink when that question stopped her dead on her track. She stared intensively at the redhead doctor for a moment, but was unable to find any malevolence coming from her, despite the – in her opinion – alarming question.

“I… guess I do.” she replied. Partly, it felt like a leap of faith. Other-partly, though… well, it was hard to think of Anne as untrustworthy.

The redhead nodded, and then she asked another question.

“Now, do you trust Jocelyn?”

Both pre-teen girls raised their heads at that point, and stared at each other for a moment, but with confusion in their expression more than malice or rivalry.

“What’s with that?” Joss questioned.

“No need to feel compromised,” Anne said, “it doesn’t have to mean you think less of Jossy, or me or anyone. Just tell me how you feel.”

“Well… I don’t think so,” Agni replied with a casual tone of voice.

Anne giggled, “You went on a life-endangering mission with someone you _don’t_ trust?”

Agni pressed her lips, glaring back and forth between the redhead doctor and the brunette farm girl until the former asked yet another question.

“And… do you trust Kim?”

…okay, now _that_ was a hard question.

“Ah’ sure do.”Joss declared. Well, hard for some…

 The green girl visibly pondered about it. All sorts of scenarios and evaluations were playing on her mind, trying to decide an answer for that question. About a minute of thinking later, she was still without a clear answer, but at least she realized she had something to respond with:

“Trust her for… what?”

Anne smiled, and Agni could almost feel like she was being congratulated by just the look in her blue eyes.

“When people determine to others or to themselves who or how much they can or will lend their trust to, few actually realize that whatever faith they lay, it’s not limited by just some person, but also some purpose.” Anne explained, “When most people trust someone else, usually they mean confidence; meaning, they will trust someone their secret, or private things about their lives. Another common purpose is reliance and dependence. Like, for example, someone saying: I know that if I’m in troubles, I can count on my friends to give a hand when I need it.”

She made a pause, taking the moment to look at both girls, who were attentively listening to her story. Even Hanna and Rufus seemed to be paying her some attention. Nodding to herself, she continued with some easy questions.

“Joss, would you trust Kim to help you with your homework?”

“Darn straight Ah’ do!” she answered eagerly.

“Agni, would you trust Joss to leash a horse if the situation called for it?”

“Mh…” she voiced, looking at the brunette for a moment, “Yeah, I guess I can trust her for _that_ much.”

Nodding, the redheaded doctor went on.

“Now, ask yourselves this: What do you do when you don’t know if you’re willing to trust or not?”

Neither girl found a reply right away. They looked at each other in confusion, while reflecting for a moment how much of a habit this “stare at each other” thing was turning into, before simultaneously shrugging.

“If you can’t think of an answer,” Anne added, “Then think: What would most people do when they aren’t certain of trusting someone else?”

“Uhm… most people, if they don’t know…?” Joss wondered aloud…

“They play it safe.” Agni answered, “Hell, scratch most people. I can’t think of anyone who’d take such a risk.”

“Really?” the doctor replied, “You can’t think of _anyone_ at all?”

She blinked in confusion for a moment, and actively thought who’d be stupid enough to risk their faith, and whatever they were placing on it – be it effort, wealth or affection – for someone that had _yet_ to earn their trust in the first place.

Still, deep inside, she knew it wasn’t always just a matter of stupidity…

But of bravery as well… if not even more so…

“Kim…”

Anne nodded.

“I don’t think you’re aware of this, Agni, but when she began making plans to move to a place for you and her, it was… actually kind of like when she began doing the saving the world thing, just not as intense. But… yeah, her father and I had some discussions with her about the idea.”

“Were you against it?” Agni questioned.

“Not necessarily,” the doctor replied, “but we were wondering if Kim had actually thought this through, and so I talked with her about it.”

Oh, now she knew where this was going. Well, since everyone could see it from a mile away, better just drop the question and let’s get over it.

“What did she say?” she asked.

* * *

“I want to believe in Agni!” Kim exclaimed, emotions swirling within her, “I want to believe she’ll behave and not get in troubles. I want to believe she’ll understand the limitations I place upon her. I want to believe all the faith I put in her will be worth it…”

Monique sighed. Since they all knew this was coming, better face it already than pointlessly delay it.

“…but?”

As her friend’s face contortioned, she could tell Kim was on the edge of breaking…

“But I don’t know if I can… not anymore…” she admitted, lowering her head and holding it between her hands.

 “Kim, darling…” Monique began, but the two of them got interrupted.

“Did I make a mistake? Was I too pretentious to think I could take care of Agni on my own?” she asked, “I feel like I’m losing all the trust she ever had on me, if any… and it’s all my fault.”

“H-hey, KP…”

“I hurt her, treated her like a fool, like nothing more than a little kid… when she’s not. She… she’s immature, but she’s _not_ **just** a kid. And she…

“Kim-”

“She deserves better than me, she deserves someone who actually respects what she’s worth, someone that can respect her decisions, regardless of what they might be…”

“KP, seriously, you-”

“She deserves the mother Shego wasn’t and that I just can’t be, she… she deserves a normal’s girl childhood, she deserves all the freedom she was denied, and yet I keep denying it from her, lying to her face…”

“Kim, quit this nonsen-!”

“I’M NOT GOOD FOR HER!” she cried, tears cascading down her checks, “I can’t protect her, I can’t raise her properly, I can’t give her what she wants and deserves, I-ACK!”

With her hair, head and hands now all wet and sticky, the soaked redhead stared at the one holding the upside down plastic glass.

“What the-!?”

“And that was from a grande-sized combo!” Ron said, “Look at the things you make me do, KP!”

“Oh, hush, sweetheart,” Monique said, “I’m so buying you another for that.”

“What?”

“So!” Monique spoke again, “Done with all that B.S., girl?”

“I’m-!”

“YOU are Kim Possible!” Ron declared, actually hitting the table upon doing so, “And nothing’s impossible for a Possible!”

Trembling eyes blinking, Kim was actually at a loss for words.

“I-I…” she barely managed to stutter before…

“YOU can do _anything!_ ” her friend declared.

“Well said, Monique.” Ron added.

“Did you forget _that_ , girl?”

“N-no! I didn’t, but…”

“But nothing!” the blond interrupted.

“Indeed,” Monique followed, “Look, Kim, I don’t know Agni as much as you and Ron do. I’ve only seen her a few times, so I can hardly tell why she scares you so much more than fighting madmen trying to conquer the world…”

“Scares me?” Kim repeated.

“Er… Mon, this ain’t anything new,” Ron reminded her, “Did you forget Halloween a couple of years ago?”

“Oh, yeah…” she replied, “Forgot super girl here can win a staring down competition with friggin’ Slenderman if she’d have to, but when it comes to family, THEN it’s time to panic…”

“F-family?”

“What?”

“You ARE Agni’s designated guardian and tutor, aren’t you?”

“Yeah!” her sidekick added, “Heck, you’re even dating her mother of all people!”

Kim sighed, “Am I?”

Monique clicked her tongue, “Look, we’ll deal with _that_ can of worm later!”

“Right, the issue now is Agni and you, KP.”

“R-right, but…”

“What?”

“Does she… do you guys think Agni could ever consider me… as family?”

The blond youth and Afro-American lass looked at one another for a moment, a series of gestures exchanged between them in a wordless, quiet conversation which Kim could only stare at in awe and confusion, especially as the completely silent discussion seemed to grow aggressive and heated up, both parties moving their hands and bodies as if they were trying to make the people around them think they are crazy.

“Uhm, guys…” she called, reminding her friend of something important: “I _am_ actually here, you know?”

The two of them looked at her, then at each other, frowned, and then directed their frowns at her, with the same question escaping their lips:

“Do you even need to ask!?”

After almost falling off her seat, Kim straightened the mess that was her mane around her head, shook it a bit, and then – despite being certain she was about to end up looking like a complete idiot – asked them:

“…what do you mean?”

Ron and Monique couldn’t be more eager to deliver their response…

* * *

“She cares for you…”

Each and every one of those words, as simply and few as they were, felt like a dagger hitting right on her chest… as did every bit of the tale of Kim’s faith for her, and as did every word that followed…

“With all of her heart, she wishes the best for you,” Anne went on, “and with her wholehearted might, she goes beyond all boundaries to do just about everything she can for you as soon as she thinks you might need something… I’m sure you remember your shared birthday party, right?”

“I do…”

“And as you surely remember, she did some mistakes then too…”

Agni simply nodded.

“God forbid she might get her hands on a time-traveling device,” she commented with a lighter, humorous tone, “She might even try to rewrite your history!”

She didn’t know whenever to laugh or scowl…

“That’s Kimberly Ann Possible for you…” the mother spoke, “Her heart’s always in the right place, naked and laid out for whoever needs her help, buuuuuut… her mind still needs to learn how to stop and think every now and then…”

Maybe it was the weight and stress of the situation, but the words, as slightly funny as they were, still brought a slight, hidden smile that was more of a smirk to the green girl’s face.

“And of course, because she _never_ does it, when she has to, she usually goes overboard and blames herself for everything…”

“Really?” Joss asked with eyes wide open.

Anne leaned back on her seat, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s doing _that_ at this very moment…”

Mimicking the action on her own end of the sofa, Agni raised the milkshake in her hand, from which she barely took some sips from, but instead of drinking, she just stared at her reflection in the glass…

“But what’s the point now?”

“Uh?”

The pale tween sighed, “All of Kim’s trust… I took it for granted, and betrayed it, right behind her back…”

Her grip around her glass grew tighter, her head lowered…

“So what now!? What does knowing all this help me for when I already fucked everything up!?”

Knowing the young girl wasn’t focusing on her, Anne allowed herself to smile as she leaned forward and smiled once more.

“Agni, sweetie… do you really think it’s all over?”

“What?” she asked, suddenly raising her head.

“Do you really think you could have possibly gone so far… that you can no longer go back?”

“After last night!? How could things not change!? K-Ki-! Your daughter can’t possibly let this go!”

Again, the redhead smiled.

“Everything’s possible for a Possible, Agni.” she told her, “And besides… you said it yourself, or did you already forget what Kim told you this morning?”

She was stunned silent. The words were right there in the tip of her tongue, but the weight of them kept her from letting them out.

“You’re not grounded…” Anne spoke instead, repeating the words of her daughter.

“She-!” she exclaimed for a moment, but then calmed her tone, “She’s an idiot…”

“You’re just avoiding the fact, dear…”

Agni didn’t reply. Just waited for the redhead to say it…

“Even now, she still decided to bet it all by trusting you… by giving you one more chance…”

“Heh… why?” she said, a sad chuckle escaping her lips, “What could ever… a stubborn brat like me… _have done to deserve this fucking bullshit!?_ ”

For the second time that day, her milkshake ended up spilled all over. Only this time, it had been utterly on purpose.

Anne didn’t even falter before the reaction. All she had bothered to do was to cover little Hanna’s ear from the incoming profanity when she noticed the young girl was trembling.

Agni panted, her subconscious telling her to regain some composure, and her active mind reminding her that, whatever happened, she would NOT cry, dammit!

“If you want to know why, you should ask Kim.” the doctor spoke as she stood up, walking towards the mess left behind by the milkshake, “But in the end, I don’t think that’s what really matters now.”

“Then what _does!?_ ” she questioned, frustration naked in her voice.

“What you’ll do next,” she said as she stood up from the ground, the empty glass in her hand, “Now that you know, that you still got Kim’s trust in your hand… it’s up to you to decide what you’ll do with it, and what you’ll do with your relationship with her…”

Her words spoken, Anne just walked away, headed into the kitchen…

The two pre-teen girls simply laid there, sitting at opposite couches with the table and Hanna between them. Agni’s head was lowered. Joss simply kept staring at her.

“What _can_ I do…?” she whispered, but it didn’t escape the brunette’s hearing.

“Ah dunno whatcha can,” she said, “but ya better not be givin’ up on her, that clear!?”

“What!?” she snapped, raised her head to be met with an expression she simply did _not_ expect.

“I’ll… I’ll never forgive ya if you do!” Joss yelled at her, tears running down her face, “So… don’t ever DARE…”

“Why’re ya crying on ME, anyway!? What’s with-!?”

“SH-SHUT UP!” she screamed, burying her face in her hands and herself into the couch.

She didn’t think what she did next.

She simply jumped off her couch, ran over the table and stopped at the edge of it, leaning over with an extended hand for hell if she knew _why_ , but still!

“H-hey, come on…” she called, “Why are you crying?”

Seriously, what did the cowgirl even have to cry _for_!? SHE was the one with the screwed up relationship that she would sooner or later confront, and here Montana was apparently _eager_ to give her a taste for facing the fucking music already!

Or so she thought until Joss revealed her face and bloodstained eyes, stared straight at her and opened her mouth…

“Do you have any idea of how _lucky_ you are!?”

…and wow, talk about making you feel like the most inconsiderate asshole on the planet…

“K-Kim… she fought for you, she’s done everything for you, she even trusted you enough to take you to live with her and fought for that!” she cried between sobs, “And I… do ya even know what I’d give for that…”

“I…” Agni began, but really, what could she say? I’m sorry? I’ll trade places with you? Doing _that_ would mean giving up on her relationship with Kim, and Montana certainly wouldn’t have it…

“I…” Joss spoke, getting Agni’s attention again, and sniffed before adding: “just so… so damn jealous of you…”

She hid her face behind her hands once more, and Agni retrieved the extended hand, oblivious of what to do, until she lowered her face and saw Hanna, crawling between her legs towards and past the edge of the table!

“ _Wow!_ ”

She instantly bended over, capturing the baby’s body as it began falling, but losing her own balance in the process and finding herself leaning forward. The tip of her feet managing a quick jump before the actual fall, and thus crashing headfirst against Joss with the baby in her arms.

“OW!”

“S-sorry!” she spoke, adjusting herself on the seat, “How come she can run on the walls but still fall off a table!?”

“Well, she _is_ a baby…”

Agni sighed, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah…” she replied, “And you two?”

“Physically? _Fine!_ ” she replied, adjusting Hanna in her arms, “I’d suggest checking out this baby’s _head_ , though!” She added, staring down at the toddler, “Just what’s with you!?”

As if to reply to Agni’s question, the miniature ninja extended a closed hand towards Joss, who raised her own towards it, which then opened, dropping a gift in the brunette’s palm…

“Candy,” the toddler said as Joss stared at the pink item in her hand before she looked back at her.

“For me?”

Hanna nodded, a bright, shameless expression in her face that, for the sake of sharing it, she spoke to her babysitter.

“Smile!”

Agni chuckled, “Well, I’ll be da-”

“Language!” Joss berated, but in a lighthearted tone.

The green tween smirked, “Oh, look who’s back to talking down to me like she can’t get off her high horse even when she ain’t around horses anymore!”

The brunette giggled, but then focused back on the baby held before her.

“Thanks, Hanna,” she said, leaning forward to kiss the child’s chubby face, “You’re…”

* * *

“…the best.”

“You’re fun.”

“You’re nice.”

“You’re kind.”

 “You’re brave.”

“You’re caring.”

“You’re attentive.”

“You’re considerate.”

 “You’re a great friend.”

“You’re awesome company.”

“You’re can be whatever you need to be.”

“You’re can become whoever you _want_ to be!”

 “You’re her hero, even if she doesn’t wanna see it!”

“You’re the best that ever happened in her whole life!”

“G-guys!” Kim interrupted her friends, “It’s okay, I get it, I-”

“No, you don’t!” Monique retorted, “You keep throwing yourself down!”

“Yeah!” Ron followed, “And we’re not having the girl who can do anything think she can do nothing! I mean, c’mon, what will your fans think?”

“Focus, darling,” Monique said before staring back to Kim, “You’re gonna have to come clean with Agni, girl.”

“And face Shego as well,” Ron added, “Whenever it’s with your words or your fists, the two of you are gonna have to communicate somehow.”

“I know!” she declared, “Look, guys, I _get_ it! I promise I’ll do that…”

Both of them stared at her for a moment, glared at one another from the corner of their eyes, and then back at Kim, before they both sighed and made their hands meet their faces.

“This isn’t good…”

“Yeah, I know…”

“W-what!?” Kim exclaimed, perplexed by their friend’s attitude, “What’s wrong _now_!?”

“Girlfriend, if you go out like that, you’re just gonna be setting yourself for failing!”

“ _What!?_ ”

“Hate to say it, but Mon’s right, KP.” the sidekick added, “You can’t just dive in and pray for the best outcome, that’s what I do! I-I mean, what I’m saying is, you need to decide on your goal and go for it with all your heart! And the rest of you, of course…”

“Yeah,” Monique said, “but how do we get her there?”

“How do I know? I’m the distraction guy, the crazy ideas guy, Mon. This isn’t my territory, that’s why I called you.”

The Afro-American woman took a deep breath before proceeding, looking at her friend square in the eyes.

“Alright, Kim? I want you to tell me something…”

Almost like mirroring her friend, Kim sighed.

“What?”

“How would you like your relationship with Agni be like?”

“…”

…wow.

Talk about getting out of your comfort zone. How exactly does one respond to _that!?_

“Well…” she began, deciding – like _always_ – that she wasn’t gonna yield without even trying, “Trusting… understanding, fun with whatever we can share or do together, open, _stable_ , for one, instead of having fights at least three times per week, communicative, cooperative in whatever way is possible, and… don’t know what else to say.”

“That’s okay,” Monique told her, “among everything you said, I found some aspects that were pretty connected, which highlight their importance.”

“Mhuh, so?”

“So for everything you said, girl, I’ve got to ask you: If trust, communication and openness are so important to you… then why can’t you come clean to your lil’ girl?”

“What?”

Monique rolled her eyes, cursed beneath her breath, and ultimately decided to put it as bluntly as it could get:

“Why can’t you trust her as much as you claim you want to?”

Eyes open wide, Kim stared at her friend stunned for a moment, and defiant on the next second.

“I do trust her! I… I’ve bet all my faith on her, even _now_ , I let her act upon her own judgment even though I feel like screaming in fear for whatever she might decide after the events of last ni-!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it!” Monique interrupted, “You’ve done everything you can for her, with blind faith that it would all pay out and bring out the best out of her, I get it, and I know from seeing you that you’ve been more patient than a saint with her. But STILL, girl…”

“What!?” she asked, borderline exasperated.

“You’ve got all of these fears inside of you!”

Just what was missing?

“All your worries, doubts and concerns!”

What was she doing wrong?

“Every emotion you feel when you’re with her, every emotion you’re feeling right NOW!”

What did she need to DO!?

“Why won’t you just TELL her all this!?”

Tell her all this…

_Tell her all this…_

_Tell her **ALL** this!_

Kim’s hands held tightly to the table, for she was shaking so hard she felt she might just fall apart any moment now…

“I…”

She felt something on her hands and jumped on her seat, but then realized it was her friends holding her hands, gently caressing them.

All sorts of questions where going on her mind…

What if she hates me? What if she’s against everything I think and decides she’s better off without me? What if she runs away like she ran away from her grandparents? And what could I do then? Chase after Agni to the end of the world, when I’d be the one Agni would want to stay away the most? And even if Agni doesn’t hate me for how I feel, what would she think of how much I’ve withhold from her up to this point? Would she EVER trust me after this? Could she possibly? Is there _any_ hope for this relationship to work at ALL!?

Her lips quivering, she looked at Monique.

“And if… if things go…?”

“Wrong?” she finished for her.

Ron sighed, “KP…”

“No one can tell, Kim…”

Ron leaned in, “The question, Kim, is another…”

She looked up to him. He exchanged glares with Monique for a single moment.

She nodded.

He looked back at her.

“Do you trust in her?”

She closed her eyes…

Tears ran down her face…

And she nodded.

“It’s as simple as that…”

* * *

As simple as that, Agni reflected as she watched Joss play with Hanna.

Just a candy and a smile, and even a toddler managed to genuinely cheer up a crying girl.

With so little…

She took a deep breath.

“Cowgirl?”

Joss paused her clapping hands game with Hanna and looked back at Agni.

“Yeah, Green?”

“You know you can visit any time, right?”

“Uh?”

“Me and your cousin, duh!” she added, “You can come over whenever you want.”

Joss glared at her babysitting partner with an expression that easily read: _‘Are you fucking with me?’_

Agni rolled her eyes, “You can even stay the friggin’ night if ya wanna.” she added, “There’s an extra mattress and everything.”

“You… ya for real!? Ah-I mean, seriously!?”

She clicked her tongue.

“Look! If I can put up with this ninja nightmare in miniature,” she said, gesturing towards Hanna, “Then I’m sure as hell I-!”

“ _Language!_ ”

She slapped her own face before continuing.

“Then I’m as certain as your cousin is of me that I can put up with the bigger crybaby of the two I got in front of me right now!” she finally finished saying.

Joss didn’t reply. She focused back on Hanna for a moment because the baby was demanding attention, but then looked back at her friend… could she call her a friend now? Her mind was debating between the instinct to doubt, and the desire to believe…

“This… this ain’t a prank, is it?”

“Do I look like the type to make pranks now!?” she retorted, seemed almost offended, “Look, bottom-line is: You can come whenever you want. I’ll even make ya a copy of the keys so I don’t have to bother answering the door for you every single day of the week. OKAY?”

Maybe it wasn’t the right idea to look aside, she thought, when suddenly she found herself surrounded by the brunette’s hug, baby pressed between them.

“H-hey!”

“Thank you…” Joss said, words muffled against her chest, “thank you…”

She huffed, “Okay, okay! You’re welcome! Now get off me before you suffocate the baby!”

Pulling away, Joss raised Hanna between them. Despite Agni’s worry, the toddler seemed anything but bothered.

“Hugs!” she said with a laugh.

Joss giggled, “Yeah, ya’ll get yer hugs.”

“Count me ou-HEY!!!”

Before she could do anything, Joss had already practically shoved Hanna into Agni’s face, and as soon as the green girl was holding the baby, Joss surrounded both of them in her arms, laughing cheerfully. Letting out a sigh, Agni simply held the baby between them with one arm, while returning the hug with another…

“If ya tell anyone ‘bout this…”

“I’mma telling _everyone_ about this!”

She scoffed, “And ya want me to watch my mouth…”

A sudden light flashing through the bedroom alerted both girls, who quickly pulled away from one another, staring at the source of the flash, smiling at the with a camera in her hands.

“Oh NO you didn’t!” Agni yelled.

“But you girls looked so cute!” Anne replied.

“If my mother sees that-!”

“She’ll be happy her lil’ girl is making friends,” the redhead interrupted, “don’t you think?”

Agni bit her lip, looking aside and trying to think of a good retort to give the doctor, but then:

“Aunty,” Joss called, “Are you leaving?”

Adjusting the white coat she had just put on, and which certainly clued the brunette in, she nodded.

“That’s right, I’m taking the night shift tonight, so I won’t be seeing you girls ‘til tomorrow.”

“Wait,” Agni spoke, adjusting the baby in her chest into her hands and holding her up, “What about…?”

“James and the boys should be arriving in a couple of hours.” she answered before the question got finished, “I’m sure you girls can manage…”

Agni gulped.

“Awright, aunty! See ya ‘round!”

“Take good care of yourselves, girls.”

_‘Yeah, we sure are gonna need that…’_ the green girl reflected, looking at Hanna like it was a nuclear bomb she was in her arms.

But when the doctor was out of sight, she soon began feeling an urge rising inside of her. Dubious for a moment, but determined on the next one, she shoved Hanna back to Joss in a moment and rushed towards the house’s main door.

“H-hey, Brain Mage!” she called as she ran down the pathway to the street. And then she slapped her mouth upon realizing what she just said…

“Heh, it’s been long since you used that nickname on me,” the neurosurgeon commented, “I think I actually missed it…”

_‘…wow!’_ went in her mind. And here she thought she would be mad for that, _‘didn’t she use to get annoyed by it?’_

“What’s the matter, dear?” she asked, bringing Anne out of her thoughs,

“Right,” she replied, shaking her head, “I just…”

“Mh?”

Lips pressed tight, she checked around to make sure no one was hearing before…

“…thanks.” she whispered.

Cutting the short distance between them, Anne kneeled before the pre-teen and placed her hands on her shoulders.

“Kim loves you, darling,” she told her, “have faith in her.”

Taking a deep breath, Agni raised her sight to meet the doctor’s blue eyes, and steadily nodded at her. Anne returned the nod and kissed the girl’s forehead.

“Good luck.”

And with that said, the redhead walked to her car and departed to the hospital. Agni turned around and went back into the house, but as soon as she went in, her senses detected something off…

She looked around for a moment, all of her senses alert, before finally closing the door behind her.

When she got back to the living room, though, she got met with a disturbing sight…

“Careful, Hanna, careful!” the farm girl exclaimed as she balanced herself atop the now vertically seized large sofa, which Hanna held atop her head like it was nothing.

“I only left for two freaking minutes!” the green girl exclaimed, unable to believe this could happen in so little time.

“And what in Tarnation did ya take so long with?!” Joss replied, apparently holding

“I just-!” she began, but wasn’t sure if ‘I just thought something smelled like shit’ would actually sound like a reasonable thing to say right now. Sure wouldn’t be proper with Hanna around, though.

“N-nevermind!” the farm girl replied, “Mind giving me a hand!?”

“Uhm, okay,” she replied, looking around, “where did ya leave your ropes?”

“Over there!” her friend replied, pointing at the TV.

Agni sighed, “Give me a super villain before this _anytime_ …”

* * *

“I’m sorry to interrupt your plans, Kim, but… you’re gonna have to face a super villain before that.”

The redheaded teen sighed. Such was the life of a hero. It was alright, though. She decided to trust in Agni, so she’d trust that she could delay her talk with her a bit.

“Alright, Wade,” she replied, “What’s the sitch?”

“I’ve got a call from a museum in Canada,” the computers expert informed through the Kimmunicator, “they said they received an anonymous letter claiming something from their museum was going to be stolen today.”

“We should hurry then.”

“Yeah,” Wade agreed, “and something else.”

“What?” Ron asked, “Do we get a free tour by the museum?”

“I got an anonymous e-mail today,” he informed, “I tracked down the source, but it was just a public computer and there was no register of who used it.”

“That’s weird,” Monique commented, “Is it RTTC?”

“What?”

“Related to the case.” Kim translated.

“Oh, well: It’s a satellite image of a hover-pod flying over the borders and towards Canada.”

Kim frowned, “A hover-pod?”

“This is the picture.” he spoke before his image in the Kimmunicator’s screen got replaced by the aforementioned photograph.

Though they couldn’t see him anymore, Wade could see Kim, and for a moment there, he saw something change in her eyes. Something that felt _off_ …

Indeed, the familiar hover-pod was visible, and atop tiny, Kim could distinguish the slender figure flying the vehicle by its trademark colors.

“That’s…” Ron began, but was interrupted.

“Thanks, Wade…” Kim spoke, and something about the way she pronounced those words send a shiver down his spine. “We’ll depart immediately.”

“O-okay,” he said, “talk to you later.”

The Kimmunicator turned off, Kim focused on her friend.

“I’m sorry I’m cutting this reunion short, Mo. …”

Monique shook her head.

“Never mind that, Kim, but…”

“Mh?”

She frowned at her, “You’ll do the right thing… right?”

Nodding, the redhead stood up and began walking away. Ron left some money on the table and quickly followed her friend.

“Time to _talk_ …”


	9. I’ll Believe

“It's okay, Green.” Joss called, “The Flippies show is already over. Ya can come out from behind the sofa.”

“Thanks, but no thanks!”

“Awright. Hana? You keep playing with your puzzles while I try to lure her out with some chocolate milk and some manga, OK?”

“You’re just gonna put on whatever’s the next brain-melting kiddy show on the schedule!” Agni accused.

“Actually, Ah was thinking of changin’ channels.” she said, actually doing that much with the controller for a moment, “Caricature Net, pass. Y-District, not with Hana ‘round. Une… hey, do ya like Unearthin’ Canal?”

“Anything interesting on?” She said, her head popping up behind the couch. “Depends on that much.”

“Somethin’ ‘bout a museum in Toronto,” she informed, looking at the screen whereas a brunette reporter – Summer Gale – was leading the live conference of a special presentation.

“We’re finally here, live for all of North America, ladies and gentlemen!” the reporter spoke, as she and the cameraman made their way through a crowd of people gathered at the museum, “The legendary treasure found by the Japanese writer, Kei Amakura, on an expedition to Egypt. According to Amakura’s research which he published in his book, “The Lost Culture of Egypt”, this ages-old relic didn’t just belong to Cleopatra VII Philopator, most well known ruler of Egypt, but also to her ancestor, of whom records are few and scarce. Nevertheless, let’s go see the treasure already!”

“Okay, this looks somewhat interesting.” Agni declared, jumping over the sofa to sit on it, “didn’t guess ya for a fan of history, Montana.”

“Ah like the animals shows on this channel better.” she explained, “Still, wonder what that’s treasure is ‘bout…”

“Here it is!” Ms. Gale spoke, “The lost pendant of the queens of Egypt, known for the name: Lana’s Breath.”

At that moment, the screen focused on the golden item placed in a glass box and center of attention to many of the gathered people. Upon seeing it, both pre-teen grimaced at the sight. The pendant was held by a golden chain connected to a flat, disc shaped top with a ruby crowning it. The top was connected to a narrow neck that expanded into a distinctive, rounded, conical shaped body decorated with engravings and jewelry. Pretty luxurious, really well ornamented, but _still…_

“That’ a _pendant_?” Joss questioned.

“Should we be watching this with the baby around?” Agni added.

The two of them then focused on Hana, who was playing with Rufus on the floor. Maybe because of knowing her longer, the naked mole-rat seemed to be doing a better job as babysitter for the toddler than either of the tweens, something said girls preferred to avoid thinking about.

“Well, she seems to be doing fine.”

“What’s that she’s holdin’?” the farm girl asked.

“Uh?”

Getting down from the sofa, she kneeled down before the toddler and took hold of her hand. Apparently not possessive for what she had, Hana simply dropped in Joss’ hand what she had on her own.

“What’s that?”

“…hair.” she replied, rubbing the short, dirty fur in her fingers, “Where’d ya get this from, Hana?”

But unsurprisingly, the baby didn’t know how to reply and hardly even tried. She just kept playing on the ground.

“Mole-rat?” Agni spoke.

“Rufus’ bald!” her friend reminded her.

“Not that!” she retorted, “I mean, does _he_ know where that came from?”

“Oh,” she voiced, turning to face the naked mole-rat, “Do you know, Rufus?”

“ _Nuh-uh!_ ” he replied, shaking his head.

Faced with a dead end, Joss simply stood up and returned to the couch with Agni.

“Weird…” she commented, and then, weirdly enough, she heard her babysitting partner _sniffing_ …

She looked at Agni, and the girl just kept raising her noise and sniffing around.

“What’re ya doin’?”

“Don’t you smell anything?”

Curious, Joss tried sniffing around on her own, but…

“Uhm… no?”

“Wait, don’t tell me…” the green girl began, getting off the couch and approaching Hanna before taking a couple of sniffs, which made the toddler giggle, but proved her suspicious thankfully wrong.

“Did she…?” Joss began, but…

“No.” her friend replied, and they both let out a sigh of relief, “still, I could swear I smelled something _awful_ …”

“Yer conscience?” Joss joked. Agni playfully elbowed her.

“Maybe’s just traces of wherever that _pendant_ has been…” she commented, focusing back on the TV.

“Some people’re starin’ at it funny.” her friend added with a giggle.

At that moment, Summer Gale showed up on the screen. She kept on talking about the treasure and how it was discovered, but Agni’s eyes caught something else…

“What’s that?”

She leaned forward, narrowing her eyes while staring directly at the screen.

“Whatcha’ goin’ on about?”

“The pedestal that indecent _toy_ sits on,” she said, pointing at said pedestal in the screen, “Can’t you tell the shadow falling on top of it now? Or is your sight _that_ bad?”

Joss stared carefully at it.

“Ah can see it, awright.” she said eventually, “but what ‘bout it?”

“It wasn’t there before,” Agni replied, leaning back on the sofa and thinking about it, “and where is it coming from?”

“Check the reporter’s shadows,” Joss suggested, “Light’s coming from either people takin’ pictures, or from atop…”

“So,” she began, “It’s coming from atop…”

“What’s that over there?” someone in the museum said, loud enough to be caught by the reporter’s microphone.

“Uh?” Summer Gale went, turning around from the camera and looking around, “What’s that commotion now?”

The cameraman followed suit, and the screen momentarily part showed some of the gathered people, and among them, someone was pointing upwards…

Then the sound of glass breaking echoed loudly ‘round the museum…

_‘…Uh-oh.’_

The people screamed and wailed as pieces of glass rained ‘round them. The cameraman, surprisingly brave, looked up with his device, capturing just a flash of a slender silhouette falling across the transparent shards.

Both girls quickly pieced a few facts together: Some sort of window on the roof had been broken by the entrance of whoever decided to irrupt into the museum through that particular entrance and mean.

Said someone landed in an instant, but the camera man only got it on screen two or three seconds later, and even then, most of the person was covered behind the pedestal holding the Egyptian treasure. All that could be seen was that the person had landed on one feet and one knee, and a long, black mane of hair that was practically hiding the rest for the moment…

But that alone was enough for Agni’s eyes to open widely and for her to suddenly stand up from the couch.

“T-that’s-!”

Like her, the person in the TV stood up, revealing their two trademark colors as the light shone upon them. Flashes from the cameras showered the curvy and feminine figure as she slowly turned around, her eyes glaring daggers at everyone present…

“Ladies and gentlemen!” Summer Gale began, resuming with her jobs even under such circumstances, “This is unbelievable! T-this person, we’re standing before one of the most outrageous felons known in the world! Wanted in more than eleven countries and counting, the infamous, emerald rogue! She who’s known simply as-!”

“SHUT your trap!” the arrived criminal yelled, her right hand suddenly ignited and firing a blast of green flames at the pedestal standing between her and the people. Hitting the base of the glass box covering the treasure, it shattered said container into hundreds of pieces, all of which flied towards the reporter, the cameraman and the people still nearby.

From what little could be told from the quaking recording, both the reporter and the camera man fell back on the ground. The camera then captured Ms. Gale among the shards of glass, yet still pushing herself to stand up…

Agni and Joss kept staring at the screen intently…

“I’m not here to waste my time…” the thief spoke, barely audible on the TV, but regaining the attention of the cameraman, even if he didn’t stand up, to catch her approaching the now naked pedestal, light from the broken window shining atop her greenish skin…

“Do you really plan to do this, lady!?” the reporter questioned, “You plan on stealing an priceless discovery before cameras!? Before the eyes of thousands of people!?”

The criminal smirked, carelessly picking up the pendant and – apparently out of pure, intentional shamelessness, wore it herself and then proceeded to stare directly at the cameras, showing her accomplishment to the world.

“Normally, I wouldn’t be the type to attract attention like this,” she spoke, “but, then again, I actually got paid no less than ten million dollars for getting this within a certain time limit. Besides…”

“Security’s here!” someone yelled. The cameraman then turned his device to capture two guard officers that had just arrived to the scene.

“Stop where you are!” the second officer ordered, “Hands where we can see them!”

“Like I was about to say…” the thief began, gaining the camera’s attention once more, “I could _use_ the exercise…”

The guards were slowly approaching the wanted felon, guns held firm in their hands, and the robber hadn’t even turned around to face them yet, but instead kept showing them her back while constantly under the attention of the cameraman.

“Ladies and gentlemen, people on the museum,” Summer Gale went on, “Calm down, this woman is about to get what’s coming to her…”

Said woman’s smirk widened, and faster than even what the camera could record, she turned around, plasma appearing, flying, and disappearing before anyone could even take notice. By then, the security officers found themselves without their guns (and caps) any longer. The people still present exclaimed all sorts of things in fear and panic, and – as if nobody had had enough - one of guards, the one that kept staring at his now unarmed hands in disbelief, could stare no longer at anything in the next second, for the thief had lunged at him and kicked his face with both feet, smashing it against the ground. The man’s limbs got raised on the air in response to being pounded like that, before they all fell inert around him.

“Holy-!” Joss exclaimed. The cameraman had done a good job capturing such display of brutality for the world to see…

“Language.” Agni interrupted, but her voice was monotone and her eyes were practically stuck to the screen.

Joss stared at her friend in disbelief for a moment, before returning her attention to the scandal of which her friend’s relative was protagonist of…

“Why, YOU!” the other officer yelled, taking out his baton and attacking the felon.

The green lady easily avoided the attack, though, and when the young officer applied the next one, she performed a low, spinning kick that effectively separated the man from the ground. Upon finishing her spin, she unleashed a second, straight kick directly into the falling officer’s chest, sending him flying across the museum until crashing against a wall.

“So much for exercise…” the woman complained…

“Oh my god…” the reporter spoke to the microphone, “It’s really her… the most dangerous thief in the world…”

“Glad ya realized, bitch.” said thief replied.

“ _Language!_ ” Joss complained.

“Uhm… she can’t hear ya…”

“…oh, right.”

“I’m leaving this shithole…” the pendant’s robber spoke, beginning to walk away.

“Is this it, ladies and gentlemen?” Summer Gale narrated, “Is this criminal just going to get away with her evildoings like this? Is there just no one who can stop her?”

“Yes there is!” someone at the museum suddenly exclaimed.

Joss’ eyes went wide ( _wider_ ) open “That voice!”

Before the cameraman could redirect his attention, someone jumped over him and Summer Gale. He followed the person with the camera – another security guard, a woman this time – as she dashed at full speed towards the green thief.

“Getting tired of your bullshit!”

Along her curse, the criminal woman turned around, extended her hand, and fired a blast of jade plasma towards the irrupting officer.

Said officer dodged it. And the next the thief knew was that she had said person’s feet, both of them, right on her face.

The dual, flying kick was strong enough to send her flying away, but she recovered in the process, spun over herself and landed on her foot, knee and claw, the latest shortening the sliding of her body until it finally stopped.

She stared at the female guard with ire shining in her eyes, before seeing the pendant she had stolen fall and get caught by the officer’s right hand. Only then she realized that she, effectively, was no longer wearing the pendant around her neck, but that it probably flew off her when she received that damn kick…

It didn’t help when that woman spoke…

“Shego…”

Nor when she removed the little blue cap, letting her long, radiant mane fall over her back to let the thief recognize her…

“ _Kim…_ ”

“Oh my god…” went Agni, “…HOW!?”

“Wasn’t Ron goin’ take her to Bueno Naco!?” Joss questioned.

“Where the fu-frigging heck IS he!?

“Uh-uh!” Rufus exclaimed, pointing at the screen.

“Don’t worry people,” the same voice that spoke before announced.

This time, Agni recognized it before the cameraman actually focused on the blond sidekick for a moment.

“Kim’s got it under control!” he claimed, the screen capturing a confident smile from his side.

Agni gritted her teeth at the sight of the buffoon, “Goldilocks, I _swear!_ Starting tomorrow your sister’s gonna be an only child!”

Apparently realizing she was being mentioned, Hana directed their attention to them. Of course, completely not understanding what was going on, the baby only giggled and clapped her hands enthusiastically, probably thinking her babysitters were going to play with her or something.

Deciding not to leave her unattended, Agni picked up the toddler, but just to leave her with Joss on the couch.

“People of the world, the day is saved!” the reporter announced, “The hero from our neighbor country has arrived to stop her longtime nemesis!”

Agni tightened her fists, “That… _harlot_ of a reporter is making me more angry than your cousin’s daft ex-wife!”

“Yer _mouth!_ ” the brunette told her.

“Oh, c’mon!” she retorted, turning around and pointing at the baby with her hand, “Like she’s gonna know what those words mean anytime soon!”

Hana, ever so cheerfully, extended her hands to take hold of Agni’s fingers now that they were close. The pre-teen just let her with them as if it was something that just wasn’t happening.

“You’re recording this, ain’t ya, Mike!?” they heard the reporter question in a whisper.

“Yeah yeah!” the cameraman whispered back.

The movement on the screen’s image indicated the girls (and who know how many people across North America) that the cameraman had gotten up and was now walking around the two women while keeping a reasonable distance. Kim and Shego were staring intensively at each other…

“Here for payback, _Kimmie_?” Shego questioned, spite spitting out her words.

“I’m here to _talk_ , Shego…” Kim replied, intensively staring at her nemesis.

“Oh, _sure!_ ” the thief replied, adopting her fighting stance, “Let’s _talk!_ ”

Kim prepared to fight too, “So be it…”

Almost immediately, the two of them began a fight that the camera man could barely keep track of. Even Joss and Agni, who had seen these women fight before, were having a hard time keeping up with the speed of their movement.

“Well, Ah’ll be leashed,” the brunette commented, “Ah’m mah cousin’ chief fan in the world, and even Ah didn’t know she could fight like that.”

“Ya tell me.” the pale girl replied. It wasn’t her first time witnessing such performance from Kim, and yet… it still sent a chill down her spine…

“This is one hell of a fight, people!” the reporter spoke, “You don’t get this kind of action even in the wildest wrestling matches the GWA!”

As much as she hated to, Agni found herself agreeing with Summer Gale. She didn’t know of any other adventures of Kim getting broadcasted ever since that snowboarding “race” against her mother on Christmas a couple of years ago, but this one was certainly going to get them some attention!

Which only pissed her off _further_ …

“Hey, Green?” Joss asked after adjusting Hana on her lap.

“What?” she replied, not turning around to face her but still staring intensively at the TV.

But… Joss needed to ask this.

 “Who… are ya rooting for?”

There was no immediate answer, which surprised Agni more than anyone else. If asked so a few days ago, she knew she would have instantly said “For my mom, duh!” or some sarcastic comeback that implied as much. And yet, here she was, uncomfortable with just the _idea_ of saying as much…

Did…did that mean she wanted for Kim to defeat her mother? Had her loyalties really changed so radically?

No… that wasn’t it, either…

“I don’t…” she began, fists tightening and head lowered, “I don’t want them to _fight!_ ”

She hated it.

She hated this situation. Powerless and unable to do anything to stop the violent struggle between her two closest persons in the world! And yes, god damn it, she considered Kim as close to her as she did with her mother!

A hand suddenly landing on her shoulder made her jump where she stood. Turning her head around, she saw Joss had stood up from the couch and – with Hana held to her chest – walked up to her, ceasing her trembling, which she herself hadn’t noticed until it stopped.

“It’s okay…” she spoke to her, stroking her shoulder, “they’ll be fine.”

Agni avoided her eyes.

“…ya think?

Joss’ hand went to Agni’s face to force her to look at her, and gave her a knowing look.

“Ah _know_ it,” she said, “and c’mon, ya know it as well!”

Letting go of her face, the farm girl used her free arm to gesture towards the TV, still broadcasting their relatives in their relentless combat.

“They’ve been doin’ this forever!” she followed, “They know their business, this is practically how they communicate by now! It ain’t like they are just gonna round and off each other ‘cuz suddenly they are pissed off!”

Agni sighed, once again avoiding Joss’ eyes, but didn’t reply.

“Not to mention, Green…” the brunette added, and only continued when her friend was looking at her, “They both love ya.”

She blinked in confusion.

“What does _that_ have to do with _this_!?”

Joss had to slap her own face before proceeding.

“It has to do that they _know_ how much the another means in yer life!” she explained, “And they ain’t stupid either, so they just aren’t gonna do something they know will hurt ya!”

She stared at Joss for a moment, then at the TV screen, seeing her mother and guardian fight intense but evenly. Despite the events taking place not pleasing her in the slightest, she could occasionally catch a glimpse of Kim’s or Shego’s eyes, and almost feel on her own flesh the willpower reflected in them.

That willpower that could inspire faith…

“You’re right…” she admitted, looking at Joss, “I’ll believe… I’ll believe in them…”

Her friend smiled at her, and Hana extended her arms to touch the green-skinned girl’s face. Curious, Agni looked down at the toddler.

“Smile!” the baby explained, sharing that expression herself.

She did.

“And calm yer boobies,” Joss added, “Oh, sorry, you ain’t got those yet.”

Agni’s face soon became an odd mix of a frown, a smirk and contained laugh, plus closed eyes…

“You…”

But the moment she opened her eyes, her expression switched to surprise almost immediately, and with the same abruptness, she covered Joss and Hanna in her arms and brought them down to the floor with her as blades flied through the air and barely missed their bodies…

Joss’ confusion only lasted ‘til she saw the dozens of kunai stabbed all over the sofa. She and Agni stood up faster than they knew they could, and looking around, they found just what they expected…

“Monkeys…” Agni spoke, back-to-back with Joss.

Or rather, worse than they expected…

“We’re surrounded…” the brunette added, her arms protectively guarding Hana.

Effectively, the Ninja Monkeys they had faced before were now all around them. There didn’t seem to be a single direction they could look at without finding at least two or three monkeys…

“I _knew_ something smelled awful!”

“Guess that explains the hair, uh…”

The green girl huffed, “I don’t suppose ya pests’ gonna tell us where to find your coward of a master, right!?”

The only reply they got from the monkeys was them unsheathing all their weapons, each one more deadly looking than the other.

“Thought so…”

Things weren’t really looking nice. They still remembered how these monkeys kicked their asses just the previous night, and now they also had a baby to protect too!

And as if things weren’t annoying enough already…

“People of the world!” Summer Gale spoke, even though the cameraman was still focused on Kim and Shego, “This situation only gets more and more tense by the second!”

Needless to say, Agni wanted to literally kill something now…

Just how were they going to pull themselves out of this situation, anyway!?

“Up here!”

Both girls then looked up at fan on the roof, from where Rufus – standing atop one of the blades – was calling for them. Their minds quickly caught up to his idea.

“Rope it!”

“On it!”

Lighting up her hands, Agni fended off any monkey who seemed like it might approach them. Just a moment later, Joss’ rope was holding one of the fan’s blades, and without losing a second, her friend fired a blast of plasma not to any monkey, but to the switch on the wall, rendering it useless afterwards but successfully turning on the device.

As the monkeys jumped at them with every intention of turning them into chopped meat, the two girls and baby left the floor, Joss holding tight to her rope while holding Hanna, and Agni clinging to her ankle.

“What an unexpected move!” Summer Gale announced.

And seeing how most of the monkeys had landed close to the TV, Agni just got what she definitely considered the smartest idea she had in quite a while, which was put into motion as soon as Rufus landed on her head. With the same blast of plasma that pushed all of them from hanging from the rotating fan and into the house’s second floor’s pathway, she attacked the television, gifting the monkeys quite a nice explosion near them.

She smirked. One less evil to tolerate.

“Did that get ‘em?”

“Fat chance.”

She was more than ready to start firing plasma at these annoying pests, but on her part, Joss decided otherwise.

“Gotta get Hanna safe!” she voiced as she began running.

“Buy ya some time!” was the green girl’s reply.

“Let’s go!” Rufus added, stepping hard on Agni’s head as she threw blast after blast of green fire towards the climbing monkeys.

Once they started retaliating with ninja stars, though, she opted to follow after her friend, much to Rufus’ relief.

She was just halfway through the corridor when more flying weapons were catching up to her, and one would have even got her on the back if it wasn’t for Rufus deflecting it, using the impact to jump back from the kunai to Agni’s body.

“Here!”

Following the brunette’s indication, Agni ran towards Jim’s bedroom with Joss closing the door immediately afterwards. They then heard – and even saw – plenty of weapons stabbing the door, but this one held up, especially after Joss initiated the security locks the Possible Twins had installed around their bedrooms.

“That should keep them busy for a moment…”

“What now?” Agni questioned. Sure, the monkeys were outside, but that wasn’t the end of troubles, was it?

“I dunno,” Joss admitted, “ya got any ideas?”

Simultaneously scared and overwhelmed for practically being put “in charge”, Agni had to make an effort to keep her mind clear before analyzing their situation. She looked at Joss, wearing jeans, a top and a jacket but none of her equipment, then at Hana in her arms, just a baby, and lastly at Rufus in her own shoulder, naked as he always was. Even she was wearing simply shorts and a long sleeves shirt.

Ultimately, she realized, what to do wasn’t really much of a question. Even if they were better prepared for a fight, there was really only one rational way of action.

“Pick your communicator,” she told Joss, “we’ve gotta contact your cousin…”

It was only a matter of common sense…

“But she’s fighting your mom!” Joss retorted, though she was already reaching out for the device in her pocket.

“ _Both_ of them will come running for us as soon as they learn we’re in danger!”

“Okay, okay!” she replied, turning on the device with her free hand, “Heya, Wade!”

“Hey, Joss!” the boy replied, “What’s up?”

“We need-ACK!”

Before she even realized, something had violently knocked the device off her hand. The impact came from above, and upon looking on that direction, they saw one ninja monkey that had somehow sneaked into the room!

The fiend then came down on them, wielding Katanas in three of its extremities. Both girls jumped in opposite directions to avoid the attack. Upon landing, Agni immediately fired at the monkey, but its focus was on Joss, and towards her it jumped, avoiding the plasma attack. But the brunette – holding the toddler tightly against her chest and protecting her with both arms – let herself fall backwards to dodge the monkey’s Katanas and then raise both her legs to kick it with enough strength to sent it flying towards a wall and bounce back.

Before he could even recover after hitting the ground, the monkey felt its tail getting captured, and after one violent swing around the room, Agni sent it flying with a scream and enough speed and strength to break the bedroom’s window and keep flying, far from the house.

“FUCKING monkeys!” she cursed.

“Fuckin’ mo-keys, te-he!” Hana repeated, clapping her hands cheerfully while Joss stared at her with shock on her face.

“Oh NO ya didn’t!”

“Oh, give me a break!” Agni retorted, “We’ve got bigger things to worry about now! Now where’s your com… oh, _fuck._ ”

“Oh, sure, just keep goin’, why don’tcha!?” her friend complained.

“Your device!” she announced, gesturing at it with both hands.

Fitting to Agni’s worries, the Kimmunicator designed specifically for Joss now laid on the ground, throughout impaled against it by one of those ninja’s blasted kunai and rendered completely useless.

“NOW what!?” the green girl asked.

“We need time,” Joss spoke, “and getting away from here.”

Agni blinked, “What?”

“Wade’ll soon catch up to what’s goin’ on and bring the cavalry,” Joss explained, “but it’s not us they are after. It’s Hana…”

“Hana!?” her friend repeated, “What could they possibly want with this miniature nightmare!?”

“Long story, but Monkey Fist’ got some history with her and Ron. Trust me, I know my cuz’ records like no one else, and A’ll bet ya he’s aiming to get her back.” she explained, “We _can’t_ let that happen…”

“Great…” Agni replied, “Then we got to think of a way of getting away from here, and _fast_.”

“Well, Ah know just how!” the farm girl announced with a bright smile on her face.

A sudden, violent impact on the door got their attention. And then another. They didn’t know what they got, but the monkeys were beating the door with something big and heavy. And they could tell: Even the Tweeb’s reinforced door would not last long.

“Well, we better hurry!”

One after another, the impacts were weakening the entrance further and further, until the door finally gave in and fell broken against the ground.

And the monkeys were welcomed with a wide blast of emerald plasma straight at their faces, after which Agni jumped off the window, following Joss who went ahead.

The monkeys that didn’t suffer much of the attack quickly followed suit, jumping out of the window and landing on the house’s backyard. They saw the green girl heading to the garage and gave her chase, but as soon as they were near, the roaring sound of an engine barely prepared them for getting almost run over by the motorbike that came out of the door and sliced through the backyard.

A customized, powerful motorbike that was being driven by no other than Joss Possible herself, with Hana Stoppable strapped on her back, and Agni Drago sitting on the back with Rufus on her shoulder.

“Ya lucky witch!” Agni commented, “Where did ya get this!?”

“The Tweebs,” Joss explained, “Certainly comes in handy.”

“Well, what are we waiting for!? Let’s give this baby the ride of its existence!”

“Hold on tight!” she spoke, getting the bike running, “YEEHAA!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I just want to add a chase sequence in the story involving motorbikes?  
> …maybe?


	10. I got a good friend

The wind hit hard against their faces, actually making them think they’d be better off with a pair of helmets, but not keeping them from enjoying the ride.

“I should burn you at the stake, y’know?” Agni spoke, “’cause you’re one hell of a lucky _witch!_ ”

Joss scoffed, “So ya’ll like my new ride?”

“Love it!” she replied shamelessly, “You better let me play with this baby one of these days.”

Pressed against Joss’ back, Hanna turned around giggling at the pale pre-teen.

“Not you, lil’ mutant.”

“Mutant?” the driving brunette repeated, “Callin’ the kettle black?”

“Oh, zip it!” her friend replied while adjusting the toddler between them.

“Hey…” Joss began, her eyes taking quick glances at the wheel’s mirrors.

“Can’t zip it, uh?”

“ _Agni_ …” Joss called, the use of her comrade’s actual name getting her attention, “please tell me Ah ain’t seeing what I’m thinkin’ I see behin’ us…”

Confused by the farm girl’s words, Agni took some distance from the driver’s upper body to turn around just enough to look… and be left with her eyes and mouth wide open.

“You _gotta_ be kidding me!” she exclaimed, “Those cockroaches can _drive_!?”

Effectively, as her friend suspected, behind them there were two roofless Cadillac driven by _monkeys_ , nonetheless! There were over a dozen in each car and they were chasing them as fast as they could.

Not your usual babysitting afternoon, that much was certain…

“Gonna be a wild rodeo!” Joss announced, holding the wheel tightly.

“Get to the highway!”

“Ya wanna make this cliché?”

“Just do it!” she insisted as she re-adjusted herself on the backseat, right hand lighting up, “I’ll keep ‘em busy.”

Deciding to go with the plan, Joss narrowed her eyes and focused on the road. The highway was just five blocks ahead. She just hoped Agni had the right idea…

On her end, the green girl was already firing blasts of plasma against their enemies from the tips of her index and middle fingers, as precise and as concentrated as she could make them, as if shooting with a gun.

But while this managed to put some stress on the two driving monkeys, it led to the rest of them retaliating by getting _atop_ the Cadillac to play their usual number of shuriken and kunai.

Seeing the weapons coming, Agni changed tactics and threw a wide, disperse wave of fire, managing to deflect most but not all of the projectiles.

“ACK!” the driver yelled when one of the shurikens wounded her shoulder, “What’d Ah have ya coverin’ our behinds for!?”

“Pity it’s not making you go faster!” her friend replied, but then her eyes opened wide when realization sat upon them, “Wait…”

“What?”

Agni smirked, “Look forward and get ready!”

“ _What!?_ ”

Without further warning, Agni extended a hand in the motorbike’s exact opposite direction, and after concentrating and charging up her power for a moment, she turned her right hand into a fire propeller, effectively speeding up the vehicle on the streets!

“Yer’ gonna get us killed!” Joss complained, doing her best to avoid any vehicles ahead of them.

“Watch out!” Rufus announced as they crossed a red light, with a large truck right ahead of them.

With no other option in mind but to try the crazy stunts she saw in movies, Joss turned the motorbike making it dash right under the enormous vehicle. Thanks to Agni giving them impulse wherever they needed, they actually managed to keep the bike from losing its balance and restore their equilibrium before continuing.

“Yer’ gonna get us killed!”

“Highway ahead!” she reminded her.

Seeing as the approaching ramp for taking the highway required _quite_ the narrower turn for their undeniably _high_ speed, Joss could all but care to watch her mouth any longer.

“Shite! Leash yerselves tight!”

Having grown to trust her partner’s tactical judgment, Agni held for dear life to the driver’s waist with both arms around it, pressing Hanna and Rufus between them to keep them safe and steady.

The turn was violent and without warning. Both girls had their bodies’ just inches away from the ground as the bike sliced towards the ramp, the tires practically crying out their abuse throughout the brief but tense moment.

Until the turn was done, and their ride had a brief moment of slowness before Joss made it take off at no less than full speed and straight into the highway.

“YEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAW!!!!” she yelled in euphoria.

“Way to go, Montana!”

“Yeehe!” Hanna tried to imitate.

“Yay!” Rufus added, keeping it simple.

Their cheers were then eclipsed by the loud noise of something crashing, and then crashing _again_. Looking back, Agni saw that one of the pursuing cars had met a nasty end at that curve, whereas the driver did not perform as well as them, ‘causing their vehicle to end up upside down.

“One down!” she announced.

“What ‘bout the other?”

“Coming right up!” she replied, seeing the second car getting to the highway.

“Not gonna get us!”

Putting all of her focus on the road ahead, Joss accelerated and starting passing by cars and leaving them behind, knowing a motorbike would easily outrun a car if traffic was on their side.

Their focus, though, was stolen when they began hearing quite an alarming noise above their heads…

“A helicopter!?”

“Please tell me it’s not…” Agni began, taking advantage of her position on the backseat to take a better look.

Which just confirmed her fears.

“…monkeys.”

“On a chopper!?”

“And not just that…” she added as a familiar figure showed his ugly face through the aircraft’s open side door.

_‘Monkey Fist…’_

“We ain’t losin’ a chopper in the highway!” Joss protested.

“But we can from the railway,” Agni retorted, “there’s an interception up ‘head.”

“THAT was yer plan all’long!?”

“Well, ya got any better!?”

“Yer gonna get us killed, Green…”

“Not moving is gonna get us killed,” she replied, looking back when she heard another alarming noise, “heads up, reinforcements!”

When she looked around, Joss noticed hers wasn’t the only motorbike around anymore, but that there were two others, each one with two monkeys in them – perhaps survivors from the crashed car – one for driving and the other one with weapons ready for combat.

“Ya know, I gotta admit…” the green girl began, paying Hanna a quick glance, “never thought babysitting would be this exciting!”

Joss smirked, “Give ‘em some!”

One hand holding to Joss and the other one ablaze, she fired towards the nearest bike. Surprisingly enough, its driver was smart enough to apply evasive action. Worse yet, the other bike had snuck up to them, and by the time she knew it, Agni had her arm trapped in a black chain and yanked by those accursed monkeys.

The pull almost threw the bike off balance, but Joss managed to hold steady. Not only that, but then she reached out with one arm to seize the chain capturing her friend, and with one synchronized pull and turn of the wheel, she made both bikes get close enough to then punch both chimps off their vehicle.

“Good move!”

“Ya got the chain,” she retorted, turning to face the other bike, “leash ‘em!”

More than comfortable with that idea, Agni swung the chain over their heads a couple of times to speed it times and then whipped the monkeys’ motorbike with it, getting it tangled around their wheel. With one pull they got them close, and then both girls delivered a simultaneous kick, destroying whatever little steering they still had.

“Two down!”

“Yeh, but what ‘bout the chopper?” the brunette asked.

“We got a more immediate problem,” her friend replied, “the big one’s caught up to us!”

As she said, the Cadillac – coming at full, reckless speed – had managed to level itself with them, and now all sorts of bladed weapons were flying towards them. Joss had to turn away and Agni had to blast plasma to avoid getting hit, but that was doing little to actually get rid of them.

“Can ya get me closer to the driver?”

“Ya can’t face ‘em all ‘lonely!”

“I don’t need to, trust me!”

“Awright,” she declared, readjusting her grip on the wheel, “speed it up!”

Agni extended her fiery hand away and did the same trick as before, managing to give their bike the necessary boost to get closer to the car’s front faster than they could do anything about. Without wasting a second, Agni jumped from the bike and to the Cadillac.

Alarmed, the driver monkey shook the wheel irregularly, forcing Agni to kneel down or else she’d fall. Taking the opportunity, one monkey jumped at her with a katana in each hand. Agni raised an arm to defend herself in whatever way was possible, yet…

“HIYA!!!” Rufus screamed, delivering a dual dropkick right on the side of the monkey’s head and throwing him off the car.

With the ground clear, the green girl didn’t waste another second before standing up, putting one foot over the glass and blasting away, particularly right at the wheel of the car. The driving monkey cried in alarm as the only mean for controlling the vehicle disappeared, sending all the other monkeys into alarm.

Agni, on her part, quickly picked up Rufus and jumped off the Cadillac. Joss intercepted them and held herself firm as Agni spun around her shoulders to get back to the backseat.

“Aunt Amy!” Hanna welcomed her back.

“Now you’re just trying to annoy me, aren’t you?”

The Cadillac, out of control, ended up crashing and spinning over itself, and then it exploded. Despite how cliché it was, the girls couldn’t help but laugh at the scene they were making.

“Now that covers that,” Joss spoke, “but…”

“I know,” Agni replied, keeping an eye on the helicopter still following them.

“We’re reachin’ the interception.”

“Think you can do it?”

“If you can give me an extra push…”

“You can bet-WAIT!” she suddenly yelled.

“What!?”

“He’s crazy!!” she said, making Joss actually turn her face to see the helicopter and what Monkey Fist was doing: Aiming a _rocket launcher_ at them! “STEP ON IT!!!”

Joss accelerated the bike as fast as it could go, while Agni propelled them with both hands this time. The bike soon reached what was definitely an _unhealthy_ speed, but that didn’t make the girls even consider slowing down.

A small sound alarmed them when the rocket was launched, which only doubled their efforts.

The missile hit….

It missed them…

But that _didn’t_ matter.

The explosion didn’t just send a wide distortion around it, but also made the whole highway tremble. And at the ridiculously high speed the girls were driving, even the most minimal disturbance was lethally dangerous.

Their balance was done for.

Reacting the best she could in this emergency, Agni blasted against the ground with everything she got, causing an explosion beneath them that sent them all flying up…

And off the highway…

Quick on her instincts, Joss reached out her grapple-hook, the only thing she got to take from their house before leaving, and fired it to the nearest viable target in the vicinity, which was the end of the highway itself. The very moment she did so, she reached out and grabbed Agni’s hand.

And then Hanna fell off her back…

But Agni caught her just in time.

With everyone secured (Rufus included, who was holding tightly to Joss’ ponytail), all that was left was where they’d end up.

The fall and rope led them towards an industry building. Demanding as much as she could from her muscles, Joss managed to – before she had to let go of the grapple hook – steer them towards the best option in this desperate situation: A window.

They crashed right into the glass, shielding as much of their bodies as they could. Not knowing what to expect, they kept doing just that, but Agni at least extended one hand in an attempt to hold from whatever she could.

She didn’t reach anything, but Hanna, who ran up her arm faster than she could do react to, held to the edge of a catwalk, and actually held Agni’s hand as well, turning their fall into a curve that ended up sending them both _upwards._

Agni’s confusion lasted only ‘til they stopped going up, for then she completely left behind any uncertainty and changed it for the only thing that was definitive: _She had to land._

She brought Hanna back to her chest and threw one simple but sufficient blast of plasma to make herself spin, obtaining a direction and finally landing on feet and knee against the roof of a dissembled car.

After taking a couple of – pretty much necessary – deep breaths, she looked around, noticing they were in a large garage, with plenty of dissembled vehicles, tools and other things of the sort. There didn’t seem to be anyone around, though. So either they were not working today or they had already left for home.

“Auhm-Ahmy!” Hanna called.

Only then Agni realized she was nearly crushing the little toddler against her chest. She gave the little child her space, but still held her in her arms. _Then_ she remembered what this child had just done… and the realization was nothing if not quite heavy and worth mentioned.

She saved her.

“H-Hanna…” she spoke, slowly bringing herself to caress the baby’s hair and face, “Geez… you’re one _hell_ of a baby, y‘know that?”

“Hey!” a squeaky voice called, making Agni’s head turn to find Rufus on the floor, jumping and signaling at her like crazy, “Help!”

Realization dawned upon her, followed by horror: “ _JOSS!!_ ”

She jumped off the car and quickly followed the naked mole-rat through the place, finally finding Joss sitting against a pile of junk in a corner. She rushed towards her friend, kneeling beside her.

“H-hey, you okay!?”

The brunette gave her a pained expression, which confused the green girl for a moment, since she couldn’t see any wound on her friend. But then again, Joss had one leg raised against her chest, and when she lowered it, she let the other one enter Agni’s vision.

The already pale girl got paler.

“Oh, _fuuuuuck_ …”

“ _Language_ , you…” she actually berated her, daring to chuckle, even, “There’s a kid in your arms, remember?”

“There’s a _saw_ through your _leg!_ Did you even take notice!?”

Joss laughed at it, but the fakeness of it showed in the pain it caused her.

“Never mind,” she replied, “had worse back at the farm.”

Agni punched the floor, “Don’t try to play though now! This is serious!”

“And more importantly,” she began, pointing at Hanna, “not somethin’ a baby should see.”

Hesitant but supposing Joss had a point – and supposing the farm girl might be more cooperative if she listened to her priorities, despite her personal disagreements – Agni left little Hanna right behind her.

“ _Please_ sit still for a moment, ok?” she spoke before turning back to Joss, to find the girl holding the saw on her leg with a hand, “H-hey, WAIT! What are you thinking!?”

“Ah’ll remove it,” she told her, looking at her straight in the eyes, “ _Then_ , ya have to cauterize it.”

Agni gulped, wondering how Joss could be so cool about this when she was already sweating under the situation. Had she really had worse back at the farm?

“Y-you sure?” she asked, “It’ll probably cause an infection.”

“Got that covered,” she said, pointing with her thump to a medicine box placed on the wall right above them.

Agni stood up and checked the box before doing anything else, forcing it open by melting down the padlock that sealed it. Thankfully, the box indeed have plenty of stuff for them to work with, including a bottle of alcohol, cotton, a box of gauzes, and some burning medicine, all of which she brought down with her. The only thing lacking were bandages…

It didn’t really make her feel anymore calm, though. It just meant there was no escaping what was about to happen.

“O-ok…” she spoke, “but first… we need to remove your pants from over the wound.”

Of course, it wasn’t quite possible to take off Joss’ pants with the saw in the way, but all that was needed was to remove the fabric from there. Picking a pair of short scissors from the medicine box, Agni cut the fabric of the jeans around the wound, adding a cut to the center at the end. She ended up removing as much as she could, fearing she might get the cloth on fire.

But once it was done, she knew that was just the easy part.

“Alright,” she said, then took a deep breath, and added: “Do you… need help?”

“Just… hold my leg.”

Nodding, Agni placed her hands around Joss’ tight, the saw ending up between them. Joss took the instrument’s end between both hands, taking a solid grip while taking deep breaths.

One…

Two…

She closed her eyes during the third during the third, and _last_ pant.

Her scream echoed throughout the whole garage, and the blood jumped up to her face, but she covered her own mouth right after throwing the saw away.

Even though she was used to blood and violence, Agni still felt her stomach twist at the sight. She didn’t flinch, though. She knew Joss was the one having it worse here, and she couldn’t fail her now of all times.

Still holding down the leg with one arm, she applied two fingers, her green power barely covering her fingertips, against the bleeding flesh.

It only lasted three, very stressful, seconds and then it was over. The worst part, at least. Agni then picked the bottle of alcohol, soaked a handful of cotton in it, and cleaned the wound with it. Joss cringed, but the pain seemed to be numbing. Next, she rubbed some cream, probably more than needed, over the leg. Her partner barely seemed to have felt that.

Lastly, she grabbed the gauzes and covered Joss’ wound with them. Because of the lack of bandages, she just ripped off one of her shirt’s long sleeves and tied it up around the leg. All in all, the cowgirl would certainly have to get it checked later on, but for the time being, it felt like a decent enough job.

“How do you feel?” Agni asked her.

“Honestly?” the brunette asked between heavy pants.

“Well, duh!”

She smiled at her, “Like I got a good friend…”

Agni actually smacked her across the head, “ _Gosh_ , you just had to be your cousin’s cousin, didn’t you!?”

Joss just kept on giggling, “Shut up, ya _like_ her.”

Agni stopped what she was doing – picking aside she all the stuff they just used – to speak directly to her friend while pointing to herself with the current instrument at hand.

“And _I’m_ gonna be the one to tell her that!” she declared, pointing then to Joss, “That clear?”

“Y-yeah,” she replied, looking nervously at the saw – covered in her own blood – in Agni’s hand, “Jus’ get that away from me!”

Only then the green girl realized what she was holding, “Ups, sorry!”

The brunette let out a sigh of relief, and tried moving her leg to see how that went. Her tight was hurting, but not as badly as she had expected.

“Hanna’s fine, right?”

“Pfff… better than either of us.” Agni replied, stepping aside to clear the way between the toddler and the farm girl, “She even saved ME from the fall! Seriously, she should be protecting _us_ , not the other friggin’ way ‘round!”

“Aww, who’s a cute lil’ hero?” Joss spoke in a playful tone, extending both arms towards the ninja baby, “Come here.”

In one moment, Hanna began crawling towards her babysitter with a big smile on her face.

The next one, right after the sound of something fast barely reached their ears, Hanna’s body fell to the ground completely inert, sending both pre-teens into nearly panic.

“Hanna!” they both yelled, approaching the toddler.

The baby had a pulse and was still breathing, but other than that, she was inexplicably out like a light. Inexplicably, that is, until Agni noticed something on the child’s leg…

“What the…?”

She took hold of it, removed it from Hanna and brought it to her face. Anger engulfed her as she realized what the item was: A dart.

Her angry eyes quickly turned to the direction she could tell it had come from, finding the one to blame standing atop the catwalk.

“MONKEY FIST!”

“What did ya DO to her!?” Joss questioned.

“What’s the problem? It’s about time for the little girl to take a nap, after all.” he replied smugly, “I should know, after all, I’m planning to take good care of her…”

“Yer not taking her anywheres!”

“The only one who’s gonna take a nap is gonna be _you!_ ”

“So you plan to stop me?” he questioned, “You and what army?”

To emphasize the point of his question, with a simple click of his fingers, the garage was suddenly jam-packed with monkeys all around. Armed, combat-trained, genetically enhanced monkeys. And they had the small team, who didn’t even know where the exit was, totally surrounded.

_‘I’m starting to see why Goldilocks hates monkeys so much…’_

Taking a deep breath, Agni relaxed her mind, starting to take everything in the best she could.

“Joss,” she called, “can you get up?”

“Of _course_ Ah can!” she replied, already getting back on her feet, although clearly not without some difficulty, “Who’d ya thinkin’ Ah am?”

Agni gave her an amused smile, but the reality of their circumstances didn’t escape her. Joss’ mobility, and especially her speed, had been compromised. If they couldn’t run away before, with a motorbike on their side, their chances now were next to zero.

That only left them with one option…

“Can you take care of Hanna?”

“Ah can, but… Agni, ya can’t…”

“I fight better when I don’t have to worry ‘bout my surroundings.” she interrupted.

Letting out a resigning sigh, Joss nodded at her friend.

“Awright,” she said, picking up the toddler and holding her tight against her chest. “Go wreck some hell!”

Taking a couple of steps away from her friend, Agni reached out to her shoulder and ripped off her shirt’s other sleeve. With the inflammable fabric out of the way, she lighted up her hands feverously. The flames burned brightly all across her arms and up to her elbows, and extending by their sides, reaching beyond her shoulders, almost like a pair if flaming wings growing out of her forearms.

Almost like an _angel_ brought into hell…

“Let’s do this!”


	11. Never again!

**Chapter 11. Never again!**

Perspiration fell down their skins only to be evaporated by the heat. Drops of sweat and blood fell like rain around the battlefield, only to make the flames hiss before vanishing into vapor and salts.

The garage was on _fire…_

Hardly a surprise, in retrospective, when you consider how many flammable objects can be found in warehouses, garages and especially in vehicles. Still, this was already beyond control and certainly going to get the firemen’s attention sooner than later. For now, though, the battle was still mostly hers.

Having already cleared the area around her, Agni got rid of the two remaining monkeys in the immediate vicinity with two blast of her plasma. Looking around, the number of monkeys still showing up was downright maddening. Did these pests never end or _what!?_

However, looking _up_ , she could see their spineless leader looking down at the fight from his safe location atop the bridge-catwalk, and she was already sick of the coward’s smugly stare. The solution was simple: Get rid of the head, and the rest of the organism falls with it.

She first fired a concentrated blast of plasma against Monkey Fist, but he dodged it by merely stepping aside, all the while retaining his cool, which Agni was already desperate to utterly destroy.

Deciding a more direct approach was necessary, she ran towards the catwalk and blasted the ground beneath her feet, sending herself flying towards him. After a quick spin midair, she was more than ready to land a flaming fist on the monkey man’s ugly face.

Yet, a kick straight to her own stomach sent her flying backwards. She ended up back on the ground after a hard fall and some rolling. As she was trying to get up, she saw another monkey leaping at her. She raised her arms to defend herself, only to suffer painful slashes across her elbows. She was just regaining her stance when, all of the sudden, the monkey was knocked away like in a baseball homerun.

Looking at her side, she saw two surprising things. The first one was the naked mole-rat, now engaging in a battle against an armed monkey by wielding a katana _himself_ , despite what the difference in size and the laws of physics should dictate. The second one normally wouldn’t be a shocker, but considering the circumstances…

“Ya can’t fight them with just yer hands!” Joss yelled at her, jumping with her good leg and spinning around with the large, metal staff in her right hand (where did she even get that!?) to repel some nearby monkeys, all while protectively holding the sleeping toddler against her chest.

A part of Agni’s mind wanted to yell at her to go hide again, but admittedly, the cowgirl had a point. Their fists could easily clash against their enemies bodies, but against sharp blades of all sorts? There was a serious difference…

Another monkey dashed towards Agni in an attempt to wound her legs, but the pre-teen green girl jumped to avoid it and then landed on the monkey’s head. The monkey was actually wielding a very nice looking katana, which Agni took in her own hands, heating up the blade with her powers for good measure.

She never had any practice with blades, but she had seen some movies and anime of samurais, which was pretty much where she got most of her moves anyway.

She didn’t feel like she needed so much experience with a sword for battling monkeys, and it wasn’t like this really changed her fighting style, anyway. She just slashed from a larger distance with the sword in one hand, and kept blasting away green fire with her other hand.

She blocked the next two monkey’s weapons, held up her resistance for a moment while blasting another one approaching Joss from behind, and then sliced a kick at her own opponents’ legs, throwing off their balance and subsequently kicking them away. Joss managed to knock out the three monkeys she was fighting with one long swing of her weapon, managing almost the same result. The one monkey she didn’t get was kicked in the head by Rufus after the bald rodent used his weapon as a vaulting pole to perform the jump.

“That’s all you got, ya nest of fleas!?” Agni taunted.

With a click of his fingers, an entire ensemble of monkeys armed with bows and arrows showed themselves up the catwalk around him.

“Oh shit…” Agni muttered as the monkeys pulled the arrows across the strings and aimed, “Take cover!”

Knowing Joss was currently the slower of the two and the one carrying a baby, she immediately shielded her friend, raising the katana in defense. While Joss dashed away as fast as her wounded leg allowed her to, Agni confronted the incoming arrows. She actually managed, perhaps thanks to a desperate rush of adrenaline, to actually dodge the first ones aimed to her while deflecting the ones persecuting Joss.

But soon enough one got her, right on her arm and making her drop the blade. That instant, she heard a lot of strings being freed, which meant arrows flying directly at her now that she was defenseless. She jumped backwards, made a backflip, and another, and another, a trail of arrows landing on the ground she was traveling.

But then one caught her feet before she could jump again…

The next second, a dozen arrows had gotten her all over her body, her face only protected because she raised her arms to defend that area.

“AGNI!” Joss yelled upon seeing her friend lying on the floor, her entire body pierced with arrows all over.

“S-stay where you are!” she yelled, forcing herself to sit up…

…and see four monkeys running at her with blades on their hands.

She managed to kick the first one away.

Rufus tackled the second one, engaging it into a sword fight.

The third one ended with the head of an arrow, that had gone through Agni’s forearm, stabbed right into its hairy torso.

But the last one managed to slash a short sword right across her chest, forcing her upper body back to the ground and a scream out of her lungs.

The offender then raised the weapon, ready to stab right throw her body, only to knocked out cold before it could do any of that by steel pipe held by its target’s partner.

“What are you doing!?” Agni questioned, seeing that Joss had came out of hiding.

Joss quickly helped Agni sit up again, feeling a knot forming itself up her stomach at the sight of how much her friend was bleeding. All she did then, though, was leave Hanna under the green girl’s protection.

“You guard her!” she ordered, taking her staff with both hands now and her turn to be the shield for her friend.

Another horde of monkeys came rushing her way, and despite her wound, she fought like it didn’t even exist, using both legs as if they were in perfect shape. The reach of the monkey’s weapons was nothing against her long staff, so they often fell before they could even try to land any cuts on her. And those she missed, Rufus would show them the skills he earned back at Yamanouchi.

Their mistake, though, was to assume her enemies had run out of arrows.

The consequence was an arrow hitting right on Joss’ good tight.

Despite her scream and falling to her knees, though, she immediately swung the staff against the approaching monkeys who thought they just had an opening. She forced one foot to the ground, taking a defensive position and ready to jump away if it was needed.

But now that both her legs were hurt, the monkeys changed their plan, returning their focus back to Agni and Hanna!

Unable to run back at them, Joss threw the staff towards the running monkeys, actually hitting two of them. Rufus, seeing other monkeys approaching Joss, opted to protect the one he was closer to. But there were still two more enemies that had already jumped and were ready to land weapon-first against Agni’s body.

Not planning to let that happen, Agni forced herself to roll. The ends of the arrows exiting her body snapped and/or made her hurt all over, but she forced herself to ignore it. She got up her knees and blasted plasma directly at the face of one of the monkeys, sending it flying away but leaving behind his katana, which she took and used against the other monkey, blocking his slash first and then cutting its legs off.

But another monkey had snuck up to her and slashed at her back, forcing her down to the floor once more, Hanna’s body falling beside her.

She immediately tried to reach out for the toddler, only for the offending monkey to stab its weapon throw her hand and against the ground, while another picked the baby’s body and rushed away with it.

“NO!!”

The dashing monkey’s run was short lived, though, for Joss managed to reach out and grab his tail on its way back to its master. She then pulled so hard and so fast that it forced the monkey to drop Hanna while it was swung around, used to smack one of its partners away from Joss, and then thrown directly at another monkey, one of the two heading to her friend, knocking it out its ground before it could do anything to her.

On her part, Agni had already gotten rid of the monkey pinning her down. She had lighted up her hand, heating up the whole weapon enough to burn the monkeys hands, and then, her arm released, elbowing the darned creature away. She quickly rolled around; dodging the other monkey that Joss hadn’t knocked down’s attack, before removing the blade from her hand and stabbing her opponent with it.

Seeing yet _another_ pair of monkeys coming her way, she took back the blade from the dying ninja and raised it in defense, ending up with her back against the ground, pressing her weapon against those of her enemies. Her pierced muscles, though, could barely hold up against the strength of the genetically enhanced monkeys. The next moment, she found Rufus on her side, his sword now also pressing against those of the monkeys, but they were still outmatched by their enemies’ abnormal force, and their blades were slowly approaching the green girl’s neck.

“Help!” Rufus cried out.

Joss had just managed to retrieve Hanna to her arms when she heard her friend’s call. Getting back on one foot and knee, she punched a monkey leaping at her right onto its stomach, disarming it, and tuck hold of its tail, determined to use this one as a weapon too. However, she also had another armed monkey coming her way from her side.

She could only retaliate to that one, or to the ones atop her friend.

A scream louder than any previous one, echoed through the whole garage. At the same time, the ninjas atop Agni where slammed by another one of their own, and she and Rufus didn’t waste the opportunity to lethally slash the three of them.

Rolling over, she saw her friend – the source of the scream – with her face against the ground and struggling against two monkeys to keep hold of Hanna, which the other two were pulling away from her while Joss held firmly to the girl’s clothes with one hand. A third monkey then rushed in and stabbed said arm with a kunai, and then all three of them ran away carrying the baby.

Agni raised an arm and fired plasma at the leaping monkeys, but she couldn’t land a single hit in the state she was in. She then focused on Joss, noticing Rufus was already by her side, squeaking to get her attention, yet the body remained motionless. Her fear growing stronger than the pain she was in, Agni forced herself to crawl towards her wounded friend.

“JOSS!” she called upon reaching her, “Joss, you okay?”

Raising her torso up, she grabbed Joss by her shoulder and rolled her over, gasping at the sight of her friend’s blood-covered face and the nasty wound across it, barely able to take in the consequences of it.

Joss had lost her left eye…

“Joss! JOSS!” she called, shaking her friend, “Don’t you fucking dare die on me!”

Despite the rest of her body not moving, the brunette actually punched her side, albeit lightly.

“Ah’m _fine_ , c-consarn it!” she replied, visibly suffering through every spoken word…

“You’re _not_ fine!”

“S-shud up and… go for… Hanna!”

She then looked up at the upper bridge, where Monkey Fist was being given the sleeping toddler by his servants. The Englishman took the baby in his arms and looked down at both girls with an arrogant grin on his face.

But what Agni saw right there and then was another thing…

It was an image of the past.

The once sealed memory of a moonless night that distorted _everything_ in a little girl’s life. A night where a heartless villain kidnapped an innocent girl for his own evil plans, forcing the hostage and her arriving savior into a nightmarish experience that, despite being overcome, not only forced things to change for the worse back then, but that even today, after all this years, still haunted both the child and the mother that came to rescue her.

A memory she once lived from one perspective, and now from another…

“Well then, little girls…” Monkey Fist spoke, “it’s been amusing to watch you struggle, but now that I got this child, I’ve got plenty of things to attend to…”

He turned his back on them, beginning to walk away.

“You can both bleed to death in pea- _WHAT THE-!?_ ”

Both his words and steps were then interrupted by a blast of plasma barely missing his face. Looking back at the girls, he saw Shego’s daughter now back on her feet, her arms burning brightly and her eyes filled with determination.

Some of the monkeys quickly grabbed their bows and arrows and fired at their still standing opponent.

All of the arrows, however, were burned down to ashes by the girl’s fire before they could reach either of them.

“Go for it!”

At her friend’s command, Agni immediately began to run towards the bridge. Three of the monkeys jumped from there to attack her, but she rolled on the ground, avoiding their attack, picked a katana left around there and slashed before her enemies could even turn around.

The three bodies were cut in half.

She immediately got back up and ran towards the stairs leading upwards. She stabbed one monkey that got in her way, blasted plasma in Monkey Fist’s direction to make sure he didn’t get too far away, and then raised the katana, stabbed monkey with it, and swung it to throw the dying monkey toward another one on her way.

She jumped the last steps and was on ground level Monkey Fist.

In his mind, he could only wonder where this girl could have possibly gotten such renewed energies from…

In _her_ mind, there was only one thought. One decision she was absolutely determined to carry out.

Her experience… would NOT be repeated!

_‘Never again!’_

She covered the distance between herself and Monkey Fist in a second, slashing at his legs, but the man avoided it by jumping over her. She turned around to pursue him, but then felt something on her leg that made her trip.

One of the monkeys had thrown a chain at her and rolled it around her ankle. She blasted at the ninja with her free hand, but then another captured that limb with another chain, while another one took hold of the other chain.

She tried melting down the chain, but the material didn’t respond like she would have liked. Focusing back on Monkey Fist, though, she her grip on the katana and threw it like a lance towards his face, but he dodged it. That arm was then held by yet another darned chain.

Pulling with her other arm and free leg, she took the monkey off the ground and swung it around the catwalk, almost hitting their leader in the head with it, but then another ninja monkey pulled and fired an arrow hitting on her free leg and forcing her back on her knees. The ninjas quickly chained the whole of her body. She struggled against her binds, but without any results.

“I told you, little girl…” Monkey Fist spoke, drawing a dagger out of his belt, “that you would regret your words…”

He pushed the tip of the dagger against her chin.

Agni just kept staring defiantly at him.

“Let. that. child. **go…** ” she ordered.

“This child’s my heiress!” he spoke, “She’ll one day rule over the empire I’ll build upon this world!”

Empire? Empire her _ass!_

She bit the dagger faster than Monkey Fist could react, pulled and threw the weapon away from him. She then stood up, but the monkeys held tightly to the chains, restraining her where she stood.

“LET THAT CHILD GO!” she screamed.

Fiske actually took a couple of step away, looking at the girl as if she were some sort of wild, crazy animal.

He then stopped and shook his head. This was ridiculous. There was nothing the girl could do against him, he told himself.

 _‘Still, if this girl wishes to behave like a rabid creature’_ he reflected as he picked up the katana she had previously threw at him, _‘then she’ll be slain as such…’_

Agni stared intensively at her target with no fear in her eyes. She may be chained; she may seem to be at his mercy. But she still wasn’t going to let him walk away from here with that baby in his arms!

Her eyes barely caught a glimpse of something purple flashing by the garage’s upper windows before they all felt a big collision happening outside and making the entire place tremble.

This was her chance.

With everyone’s balance compromised, Agni dashed forward. The monkeys holding her either lost their grip on the chains or fell down for holding to them. Regardless, Agni could only focus on the _big_ monkey ahead of her. Not having her arms available didn’t derail her, though, as Monkey Fist learned upon experiencing her tackle, head first, against his crotch.

With the chain’s grip loosened, Agni reunited as much of her power as she could in her hands and arms and released it right there and then. The blast made a wreck out of her clothes, but also pulled the chains away from her.

With one hand, she took Hanna away from Fiske, and with the other, she gave him a _good,_ pointblank taste of her mother’s power, blasting him to the end of the catwalk with one blast.

The monkeys immediately tried to capture her again with their chains, getting her by her neck and ankles. She immediately turned around and delivered a quick flame at each of them, freeing herself from restrains.

“You little BASTARD!” she heard behind her, turning her face to see Monkey Fist about to cut her in half with the katana…

…only for his wrist to get bitten by the furious, piercing teeth of the just landing naked mole-rat, making him scream loudly and drop the weapon. Agni took a quick glimpse at the direction Rufus had come from, finding Joss holding herself back up over one hand and one knee.

Seeing as the other monkeys were getting back up and ready for some more, she quickly kicked Monkey Fist and then jumped off the catwalk, rolling on the ground and then, with Rufus landing on her head, dashing towards her friend, who was waiting her with katanas she collected from the ground for them.

But before taking the weapons, Agni, with one free arm, turned around firing a continuous line of green fire that built a wall of flames between them and the monkeys, halting their pursuit for them.

“You… you little…” Monkey Fist muttered, walking up to where his monkeys stood, “give me back my heiress this instant!”

“Over our dead bodies!” Joss replied, taking the baby in her arms.

“You can try all you want, Monkey Fist…” Agni spoke, taking a blade in each hand, “but we’ll NEVER let you ruin this child’s life!”

Growling, Monkey Fist commanded two of his monkeys to hand him two swords. Once armed, he began walking towards the girls, his ninjas in front of him. Both girls plus mole-rat readjusted their fighting stances, ready for one last battle…

One last battle that simply wasn’t.

He hardly felt the hand on his shoulder that forcedly spun him around, and barely caught a glimpse of red before lights went out.

Monkey Fist body took off from where he stood and flied across the entire garage, going over his monkeys and both girls, who followed the sight of the man until he crashed against the remains of a dissembled car, his body then falling to the ground with no resistance whatsoever.

Agni and Joss turned around once more, meeting who accomplished such an, admittedly, brutally satisfying feat.

“KIM!” they both yelled.

Fiske’s monkeys, aware of the redhead’s presence as well, instantly raised their weapons.

One second, about a dozen of monkeys where leaping towards the young hero.

The next one, all of them had been sent flying to crash on several locations around the garage.

The pre-teens weren’t even sure of what they saw. They heard a war cry from their rescuer, but the rest happened way too fast for their tired eyes.

Kim looked at both of them then, but she wasn’t the one to speak first.

“AGNI!”

“JOSSIE! HANNA! RUFUS!”

Coming from behind the redhead, Ron and Shego dashed past her and towards the two girls.

Said girls, exhausted as they were, simply let themselves fall down to her knees as their rescued approached them. Soon they had their hands over their shoulders, murmuring encouraging words to them, if only to make sure they retained strong their will to live for fear that their life might be in some serious danger…

Kim soon caught up to them, kneeling before both girls. The two of them looked up at her, who stared at them with neither sadness nor a smile, but with confidence in their eyes.

“Stay strong,” she told them, “you’ll be fine.”

Too tired to even reply back, they just nodded at her.

On one side, Kim saw Ron taking his sister in his arms, relieving Joss of the burden. He and Rufus kept encouraging the farm girl the best they could.

On the other, Kim then saw Shego glance maliciously at Monkey Fist’s inert figure, but just when the older woman was about to stand up, the redhead took hold of her wrist.

“Not in front of your daughter.”

Shego’s eyes switched from anger to surprise, from surprise to reluctance, and lastly, from reluctance to yielding. She simply focused back on her daughter, praising the girl for her efforts and triumphs.

Soon, more voices began to echo around the garage. The place was soon crawling with police officers, firemen and, finally, a few doctors that brought in some stretchers. Soon, they’d be out of here and getting medical attention…

Kim, Ron and Shego remained with them as they were put on the stretchers and carried out of their garage. Both girls were just easing their minds, letting the adrenaline, stress and fear that dominated them moments ago finally ebb away…

“Girls…” Kim then called, holding their hands and capturing their attention.

They both looked up at her, to be met with a warm, tearful smile.

“I’m proud of you…”


	12. Do Right

** The Hardest Mission **

**Chapter 12. Do Right**

Kim parked the bike outside of Ron’s place. It felt a bit odd going back to bikes, but after the way she landed the Sloth, well…

She shook her head. It wasn’t the time to focus on that. Instead, she turned her face to look at the girl clinging on her back.

“Ready?”

Agni sighed, getting off the bike’s extra seat.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” she replied with a half-intended smile.

“C’mon, it’s your party.” she reminded her, “You and Joss earned this.”

She shrugged, “Whatever, let’s get this over with.”

“You sure nothing hurts, right?”

Agni rolled her eyes, “For the last time, I’m fine!” she spoke, exasperated, “I mean, seriously! You _know_ my mom and I heal faster than normal!”

“I’m just making sure…” she replied, walking towards the door and knocking the door.

“Well, here goes nothing…” Agni commented.

The door was opened by Joss, nonetheless! And sporting a new eye patch over her missing eye, which… actually looked pretty cool, Agni had to admit.

“Howdy!” she said enthusiastically, “‘bout time ya’ll ‘arrived! Ah was done cloggin’ all the attention ages ago!”

Agni looked at her friend up and down with bewildered eyes.

“Ya can _stand_ already!?”

“I… was wondering the same thing.” Kim added, remembering the lamentable state of her cousin’s legs two days ago…

“Who ya think yer dealin’ with, uh?” she replied with a wide grin.

“JOSSIE!” they all heard Anne yell. Joss suddenly looked mortified.

“Aw, man…”

The redhead doctor soon showed up with a short crutch in hand.

“What did I tell you!? We agreed to no wheelchair only on the condition you used the crutch!” she voiced.

Only then Agni noticed that, indeed, Joss was putting most of her weight in her right leg. Presumably the least wounded one.

“But aunty! Ah can walk jus’ fine!” the farm girl replied with a pout.

“No buts, young lady!” Anne retorted back, raising forth the crutch for Agni to hold.

Joss sighed, but still took the offered item, and using it to move past the door, “Wish AH had healin’ powers too…”

“Moot point,” her friend replied as she and Kim walked in, “I’m _still_ being treated like I’m made of sugar glass!”

While Anne greeted her daughter, Agni looked around the house, seeing the Stoppables talking with James at the table, plus the Tweebs momentarily entertaining Hana. Not really much of a “party” but more of a family celebration, she’d say.

She had been told someone _else_ would be here, though… specially if she was gonna consider this a _family_ celebration.

“Hey, Green,” Joss called.

“Sup?”

“Ronald wanted to talk with ya,” she informed, “He’s in the kitchen.”

She shrugged, but began walking towards said place. She stopped midway, though, turning back to face her partner.

“Don’t stress your body, alright?” she replied, “School’s starting soon. You don’t want to go around there limping.”

Without waiting for an answer, the green girl headed for the kitchen, finding the blond sidekick inside. He was wearing an apron and chef’s hat, and currently happened to be taking some cupcakes out of the oven. Well, at least there was _something_ to look forward to.

“Agni!” he exclaimed once he saw her.

The young girl couldn’t help briefly staring, and cringe on the inside, at the man’s still bruised face. If he noticed, which was unlikely, but if for some miracle he noticed, he didn’t shown any concern about it.

“H-hey there…” she began, but before she could say another word, she was practically glomped by the young man, his arms surrounding her in a tight hug.

On one hand: _‘Well, at least someone doesn’t treat me like a porcelain doll…’_

On the other: “What’s this freaking for already?!”

“Thank you,” he said, sounding like he was about to cry, “Thanks for taking care of Hana…”

“Seriously!?” she replied, “You already thanked me for this! Like twenty times!”

“Still…” he said, taking some distance to look at her in the eyes while keeping his hands on her shoulders, “I owe ya, really. And I wanted you to know that if you ever want anything from me, _anything_ at all, just… don’t hesitate to ask, alright?”

She sighed, but patted one of his hands.

“Alright, I get it. You don’t need to worry…”

“Just… thanks, forever thanks, Agni…”

She let a small smile happen on her face for a moment before suddenly getting a clever idea.

“Hey… I used to think I’d have to be eighteen and get drunk before I could say anything like this, but… there is something I think you could help me with.”

“Oh, really?!” he asked, his face beaming with excitement. Apparently he was more than glad to be able to repay the favor.

“Yeah, well… could you actually teach me to cook like you do?”

He actually looked surprised at that request.

“You wanna learn to cook?”

She rolled her eyes, “Hey, if I’m gonna live with the queen of all sorts of kitchen accidents, someone’s gotta keep us fed or we’ll end up wasting a fortune on take outs!”

He patted her shoulders. “Say no more, my young Padawan! I’ll make of you the best chef in the entire galaxy!”

As if to add to the point, the naked mole-rat had exited his owner’s pocket and already climbed up his head, taking the chef’s hat off of him and placing it atop the young girl.

“The best!” he added after landing on Ron’s shoulder.

“Well, said, buddy!” clasping his finger against his pet’s paw. Their version of a high-five.

On her end, Agni was simply rolling her eyes. She supposed she’d better prepare herself to run down her patience if she was going to spend this much time with Chef Goldilocks.

“Alright, alright, enough with being so nice!” she declared, taking a couple of steps back for the sake of personal space, “Let’s just… settle a time and place for this.”

“Well, we can do it on weekends.” he suggested.

“Deal.” she replied, taking the chef hat out of her head and putting it back on the blond, “I’ll leave ya to your cooking.”

“Looking forward to it!” Ron mentioned while she exited the kitchen.

Once back in the living room, Agni noticed two other people had arrived: Wade and Monique. They were both being greeted by Kim, but it wasn’t long before they noticed her. Agni thought of searching for Joss just to have an excuse to escape the, in her opinion, unnecessary flattery that she knew was coming her way, but alas, she knew she would be delaying the inevitable. So better bite the bullet, she guessed.

“Congratulations for the lil’ hero!” Monique said, bending over to kiss the girl’s forehead.

_‘You could’ve left “lil” behind…’_ she thought before replying, “Yeah, yeah, I’m awesome, I deserve all the praise, and blah, blah, blah. Either get over it or go straight to something more unique to say already!”

Not fazed by girls admittedly expected behavior, Wade and Monique just looked at each other, shrugged and smiled. Wade took something out of the jacket he was wearing and handed it to Agni.

“What the…?” she began, taking the item in her hands with wide open eyes.

“Your own Kimmunicator,” Wade declared, “It’s all yours.”

She was about to complain about the device that was supposedly hers being called like that, but, then again, as much as she liked her own name, even she didn’t feel like “Agnimunicator” had a good ring to it.

“So… this like a prize or something?”

The young genius shrugged. “Take it as you like. It’s yours.”

She was already toying with its functions. The device was shaped like those modern, tactile-screen phones that ruled the market nowadays, but coming from Nerdestein, she could already bet that it was certainly way better than any other. She was already toying with its functions. Apparently Wade even installed games for her!

“I also got one to give Joss,” he commented.

“You’re giving Montana technology?” she asked, “What’s next, you’re gonna give your boss a copy of my mom’s manual to great thieving?”

He rolled her eyes.

“I’m sure she can handle it. Besides…”

“Wait,” Monique interrupted, “Your mother doesn’t actually have a thieving manual, does she?”

Now it was Agni’s turn to roll her eyes.

“You’d wish!”

“Heck yeah!” she replied, “If she ever writes one, make sure to get me a copy!”

For a moment there, Agni didn’t know whenever to take that as a joke or if to be really scared. She almost wanted to pray to god that it was a joke. If there was anything she was certain she could say about Monique, it’s that the Afro-American woman somehow never failed to be unpredictable.

“Where _is_ Joss, anyway?” Wade asked.

“She was here just a minute ago…”

“Hey, Mon, Wade, how’ya guys doing?” Ron called from the kitchen once he spotted his friends.

“BRB, gotta kiss the cook!” Monique said before dashing towards the kitchen.

“If you see Joss, tell her to come see me.”

She shrugged and mumbled “Whatever” under her breath before going back to play with her new toy. Soon she came across the GPS function and man, did it work faster than any other she’d seen. As soon as the program finished loading (which was about three seconds top), the screen was already displaying a few special dots. It didn’t take long for Agni to realize what they were: The Kimmunicators.

She zoomed in right over Ron’s place. There was her, and then there was Ron’s in the kitchen, and… two others right beside him. Right, Wade had Joss’ Kimmunicator along, but what about the other? Did Monique have one? Nah, it was probably one Wade had for himself or a similar device. Then there was Kim… which, according to the GPS, should be… right beside her? But Kim, like Joss, wasn’t anywhere to be seen in the room.

_‘Did she go upstairs?’_

Looking at the stairs leading to the upper floors of the house, Joss happened to be descending from them, step by step, following her instructions to use the crutch. Curious as to why her friend would have any reason to head upstairs, she walked towards the brunette.

“Hey,” she called, “something’s up?”

“Yeah,” she replied as she finally got down the final steps, “Your mother just arrived.”

“She’s here!?” she said, her excitement betraying her expression.

Joss had to raise the crutch by her said to halt the green girl from rushing upstairs that very instant, earning herself a questioning stare from her friend.

“She’s with my cus.” she explained, “They… Kim said they needed some time to talk in private.”

“Oh…” she voiced, a hint of sadness in her voice as she recalled a rather recent night. Her eyes then suddenly went wide open, “Wait, you mean talking _talking_ , or…?”

“Talking talking.” Joss quickly clarified, getting a relieved sigh out of Agni, “Don’t worry, your mom will be down here in a few minutes.”

“…Alright.”

* * *

Well, this was… awkward.

Not exactly because their relationship was currently anything but the best of situations, but because they had spent already five minutes at Ron’s bedroom and in each other’s presence and had yet to actually exchange some words…

While silent, though, their bodies were pretty expressive, if only to express their own discomfort with the situation. More than once, one of them would seem like she was about to say something, but then halt herself at the last instant.

“I…” Shego said first… but even then didn’t know how to follow.

However, that word alone was enough of a trigger for Kim to decide that enough was enough. She shook her head and her stupid worries away, took a deep breath, walked towards the taller woman, and though for a moment Shego thought she was about to get slapped (if she was lucky), the second after she closed her eyes, reading herself to whatever punishment Kim deserved to deliver, she found wrapped around the redhead’s arms instead.

As impossible as it seemed, Shego felt even more muted than before. Kim wasn’t saying anything, though. She simply held the thief into a tight but gentle embrace, her face buried in the woman’s neck. A moment later, the green woman got the message, and instantly returned the embrace.

Sometimes… words just weren’t the way to communicate feelings…

And this was certainly a better way than that of two days ago…

* * *

**Two days ago…**

Fighting was, under a certain perspective, one of the world’s oldest forms of art. The way of wielding your body like a deadly weapon.

Violence was ugly, nasty, and unpleasant to deliver, to receive, and even to watch.

Rivalry was passionate and demanding. At its best satisfying, yet at its worst, excruciating.

Competition was challenging, whenever it was unfair or honorable. It brought out your all.

But this wasn’t fighting, violence, rivalry nor competition.

What Kim and Shego were having was above all that.

It was, in every conceivable form, a clash of wills. A direct encounter of two forces going all the way against one another. And “All the way” was not a figure of speech. It was the literal description of what was going on.

The two fighters were holding absolutely nothing back. True to themselves and more determined than ever, both women were putting it all into this fight. No efforts withheld, no pulled punches, no rests neither given nor taken. Both combatants were absolutely relentless, not letting a single opportunity for attack to pass them by, and not letting any of the pain they were receiving slow them down even one bit.

To anyone witnessing the fight, either right there in the museum or what was being transmitted on TV, they could only wonder in awe how these two young women could take so much punishment and still be standing. For them, it was like the pain didn’t even exist.

Ron in particular felt rather impressed by Kim, who’s fighting style was certainly far more aggressive than it usually was. She wasn’t even dodging Shego’s blasts of plasma like she often did. Most of them she was deflecting, and if dodging them, she did so while running, jumping or whatever means she was heading towards her foe.

Relentless and absolute, that was the only way this confrontation could be defined.

And so caught up he was in the battle, that he didn’t notice the Kimmunicator demanding for his attention until Wade made the device move on its own out of his pocket and crawl up to his shoulder.

“RON!” he yelled directly at the blond’s ear.

The sidekick yelped and jumped where he stood, knocking the device out of him, but – realizing what it was – he managed to capture it before it fell on the ground.

“Wade!” he called, “What’s the matter, man? You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“You weren’t responding…”

“What? You mean I _had_ a heart attack!?”

Wade slapped his own face. How could it be that he always ended up caught in this sort of conversations with Ron, anyway?

“No, not that!” he replied, deciding he better get to the point instead of wasting any more time.

On their part, Kim and Shego weren’t willing to give each other the slightest break. But while they were both putting all of themselves into this, one’s emotions were wilder.

Already irritated to hell and beyond for what should have been just a short mission, Shego charged her fist in flares and directed it to Kim, who clashed her own punch against hers. What was _beyond_ irritating, though, was that the resulting explosion affected her _more_ than it did to the redhead!

She’d cut her tongue before admitting it, but deep inside, a part of her was actually scared. She had been at the receiving end of Kim’s unleashed anger once, and barely walked out of it. This time, she was better prepared, but still… who knew what the slightest mistake would cost her…

Deciding she needed to one-up her game, even at this point, she jumped away, blasting plasma not just as another attack towards her opponent, but also to gain some more distance. Once she had that, she ignited both hands and violently smashed them against the floor.

The ground before Kim’s feet suddenly _exploded._

“KIM!” they heard Ron screaming, but didn’t let it deter their actions.

Kim jumped backwards performing a backflip to avoid most of the flying pieces of concrete. One in particular, though, that also happened to be notably big, was heading straight at her, so she couldn’t avoid it.

So instead, she kicked it _back_ the way it came from.

“Kim! You need to stop!”

Shego took a hard hit from the rock, but sustained it nonetheless. Her problem, though, was in less than two seconds Kim was already back in front of her.

Realizing going into offensive wouldn’t save her from this, Shego instead drew Kim’s next strike towards herself and applied a judo pull and technique over her arm, rolling her opponent over her shoulder and – using the redhead’s amazing speed for momentum – throwing her fast enough to reach the wall.

Wherein Kim laded by flexing her legs, and bounced _back_ from, spinning over herself in the process and landing on Shego with a drop kick the older woman had no option but to absorb.

An opportunity Kim Possible would _not_ let escape.

After flexing her legs into Shego’s defending arms once more, Kim simultaneously kicked her again, sending Shego against the ground, and jumped into the air, where she spun and pulled back the fist she was bringing down to Shego this instant.

Shego raised her arms in defense, already expecting the worse…

But it never came.

Something intercepted the redhead’s attack. _Someone_ , to be precise. The body fell hard to the ground, half of it atop Shego. Both women’s eyes went wide upon seeing who it was.

“RON!” Kim screamed.

“The hell?!”

Sitting up, Shego turned Ron’s body face up, helping him sit up as well.

His face did _not_ look okay…

“Ron, you okay!?” Kim asked, kneeling beside him.

Shego looked at Kim for a moment before looking back at Ron. It was weird, she thought, how seconds ago they were pretty much ready to murder each other, and now, all that ire and fervor had been automatically left behind.

Such was the power of Ron Stoppable, uh…

“F-fine!” he replied as he could. Apparently, it hurt to speak, “But-!”

Rather than going on speaking, he simply picked the Kimmunicator and raised it between both women.

“Kim, Shego!” Wade called, “It’s an emergency! The girls!”

* * *

Thinking back on it, Shego had to admit that she was impressed not just by the young girls holding the ground against such a big group of genetically enhanced ninja monkeys, but by themselves as well considering how fast they left everything aside, got into the Sloth, and flew back to the States to rescue the girls faster than any jet could ever dare. She barely recalled how Wade was putting the pieces together during the flight, discovering that the person who hired Shego to perform that assault on the museum and the person that sent Kim the information to track down Shego were the one and the same: The monster her daughters were fighting against, and who they were going after at full speed.

The vehicle did _not_ survive the emergency landing, though… but then again, considering what Agni told her, that alone might have been what let her daughter and Joss survive…

Speaking of…

“Kimmie…” she spoke, regretting to break the moment, but forgetting about that right on the next one, “how’s your lil’ cousin?”

“Joss’ fine,” she replied, “thanks for asking.”

_‘You’re welcome,’_ she felt like saying, but kept it to herself.

For the sake of avoiding falling into another awkward silence, she asked the next thing that came to her mind.

“What about Doof… what about Ronald?”

Kim chuckled for a moment at Shego’s attempt to remain polite.

“He’s fine. His face’s still sore, but he’s got a higher resistance to pain that you would expect.”

“He keeps surpassing my expectations,” she replied with a small smile, “I’ll give him that.”

Kim blinked upon realizing something was off.

“Aren’t you gonna ask about your daughter?”

“I know my daughter’s fine,” she retorted. She knew well enough how effective were the healing powers that she, her brothers and her daughter were blessed with. Her mind then realized Kim might have been meaning something else, “I just…”

Kim waited for her to go on, but Shego had fallen silent.

“You just what?”

The older woman took a deep breath before continuing.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking these last two days,” she mentioned while sitting down on Ron’s bed for comfort, “About how I’ve been living my life, how I’m living today, and how I want to live from here on…”

“Shego…”

“And more importantly…” she went on, “how these things affect those around me.”

Kim didn’t say anything, just sat on the bed alongside the older woman, one hand placed on her shoulder for reassurance.

“Nine years ago,” Shego followed, her voice trembling more and more with every word, “when that… that _monster_ stepped into our lives… I… I did wrong to my daughter, to the most important person in my life. I… I almost…”

“I know.” the redhead spoke, saving her girlfriend from doing ill to herself.

“I… I always felt that I couldn’t possibly ever hurt her more than that, but not only was I wrong, but… I proceeded to do just that immediately afterwards…”

Tears began falling down her face. Kim simply held her hand tightly while rubbing her back.

“I left her… I ran away from my own daughter right when she needed me most. I abandoned her, and been running away from her ever since, too scared to face what I had done to own up to it…”

She sniffed, rubbing her face with her hand for a moment before raising her head to look at Kim.

“Even you… I used you as a tool to stay away from her…”

“That’s not true and you know it,” Kim replied.

“But…”

“It’s true that you did run away from her in the past,” she replied, “but I know that during the last few months, you’ve been doing your best to make it up to her.”

“Princess…”

“You think I didn’t notice?” she asked before going on, “Every time you came to visit Agni, I could tell you were scared. Honestly, it was obvious. My mom commented about it more than once. But… but you did it anyway. You’ve been trying, little by little, to shorten the distance between you and your daughter.”

She raised Shego’s hand between them, holding it tightly as she looked intensely into her lover’s eyes.

“And that _means_ something, Shego. That’s important, for both you and Agni, so don’t say you’re just doing wrong…”

“Kimmie…” Shego spoke, but then lowered her head.

Even though Kim’s words were meant to soothe the older woman, they also pained her deeply. It made the decisions she had taken all the harder to carry out, but… for everything she felt for Kim, she _had_ to do this.

“You’re too good for me, Kimmie…” she said, shocking her lowered head.

“Mh?” the younger woman voiced, confused as to why her rival and partner would say that.

“You… you deserve better than me, Princess…”

The meaning behind Shego’s insinuations then fell right into place in Kim’s head, and it hit her harder that any punch Shego ever delivered.

“You… you’re breaking up with me!?”

Placing her other hands on Kim’s shoulder, Shego put some distance between them.

“I… I _need_ to, Princess…”

A part of Kim wanted to yell, get offended and do anything in her power to change her (former?) girlfriend’s mind, but…

…but a part of her noticed the pain put in the word “Need”. It meant Shego didn’t _want_ to break up with her, but… something was demanding it? But what could _that_ be?

Taking a deep breath, Kim commanded herself to stay calm and be understanding before speaking again.

“Why?” she asked, managing to sound calm, “What are you planning to do?”

“I’m going on a trip,” she replied, “I need to… to… I believe it’ll help me find the path that’s right for me.”

Kim could understand that reasoning, but couldn’t help getting irritated from Shego obviously hiding something in there. She needed to take another deep breath before continuing.

“Where are you going?” she asked, this time her tone betraying her slightly.

Shego thought about it for a moment before replying.

“I shouldn’t tell you about it, Princess…”

“Where to, Shego?” Kim demanded to know.

This time, it was the green woman’s time to sigh, “Alright, alright… I feared I’d have to, anyway.”

She straightened up, and shifted her position in the bed to look straight at Kim. The redhead did the same.

“You know that ninja school that your sidek… that Ronald attended to?”

“Yama-nouchi, yeah.” she replied, “I’m surprised you know about that.”

“I learned about it from Fiske, some years ago.” she explained, a frown dominating her expression for having to remember that _asshole_ that set them up. Still, she went on, “Thing is… they are not the only one of their kind.”

“…what?” the redhead asked, clearly looking confused.

“When I left my home, and family, all those years ago, I wandered aimlessly for a while, but… somehow I ended up finding this place: The Kage-Kyö School.”

“…go on.”

“Both schools actually have the same roots, for what I gather, but as of today, they are as different as it gets. The Yama-Nouchi, they basically follow the way of the Samurai, even if they don’t limit themselves to using Katanas. My school, though… let’s just say, they don’t share the same values.”

“Did you train there?”

“For a while, yeah, and while they don’t value honor much, they do focus on what you may call… the ‘true self’.”

“And you think that may help you?”

“It did once, as far as I would let it…”

She arched an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“Last time I was there, I learned _much_ about myself,” she replied, sounding like she was reliving quite the amazement, “even things I hadn’t even imagined before. But… for any of this to actually help you, first you got to accept it as a part of you.”

“…and?”

Another deep breath, “It’s a progressive work, you may say, and… I could only go so far…”

“Do you… regret it?”

“I haven’t… ‘til recently.”

Kim nodded, and reached out for Shego’s shoulder.

“I…” she began, but then adverted her eyes, thought about it for a moment, then shook her head, before actually replaying, “I can’t say I understand or relate to this, but… if you honestly feel you need this, then… I won’t stop you.”

She stopped for a moment, giving Shego a chance to say something. When the older woman didn’t, she went on.

“That said, though, there’s…”

“Questions?” Shego finished for her, “Shoot.”

_‘What about us?’_

“What about Agni?”

“I’ll talk to her now,” the mother said, her expression dropping, “that’s gonna be the _hard_ part.”

“Alright then…” she replied, turning around to sitting straight on the bed.

Shego might not be the most romantic partner ever, but even she wasn’t that tactless. She slowly reached out and placed her hand on Kim’s shoulder.

“Princess, I-”

“Don’t call me that.” she replied.

Shego had to bite down some anger before proceeding. “Kim…mie, look, I understand if you’re angry, but… I don’t think I could maintain a long distance relationship, even if I tried.”

Kim didn’t reply, didn’t even look at Shego.

“Maybe, someday… if you… if we’re both up to it, then we can…”

“It’s your life, Shego.” her now ex-girlfriend replied, “Do with it as you see fit.”

She then looked up, to Ron’s room’s window, where her reflection looked back at her. Though lessened, Kim could still notice, even in the window’s dim reflection, her black eye.

The night she got it, she knew that a relationship with Shego would be… not necessarily impossible, but most certainly a hard one to hold on to. Not just because of their background, but for their very nature. Ever since then, a part of her wanted to end their relationship for the sake of both of them, but feelings she still had for the green woman kept her from doing so. Moreover, just tonight, seeing Shego make an effort to make up with her for what happened before made Kim feel like falling in love all over again.

Yet Shego had other plans…

She inhaled deeply, feeling her entire body shudder as she did so. She wouldn’t cry, nor get angry. Not now…

“Thanks, Kim…” Shego replied, “I can only pray Agni will be as understanding…”

“Don’t keep her waiting any longer.” Kim spoke in a surprisingly neutral tone as she stood up, “And… you don’t have to worry.”

“Mh?”

“No matter what happens,” Kim went on, turning around to face Shego, “I’ll look after Agni.”

Shego stood up, and hesitated. She wanted to say ‘thank you’, but she knew, she saw it for herself, that Kim was doing this not for her, because she _wanted_ to. So instead, she simply and softly placed her hand on her ex-girlfriend’s shoulder, giving her the kindest expression in her face that she could accomplish.

Kim only returned a sad, half smile, but nodded nonetheless. Without saying another word, they left the room and headed back downstairs.

* * *

“I’m telling you,” Agni kept explaining to Joss, “we just need to find something to blackmail Nerdlinger with and he’ll give us some of the missions!”

“We’re NOT blackmailin’ Wade!” Joss retorted, “Besides, do ya jus WANNA get us in more horseshit now or what!?

“tI’ll just be the easy missions! The ones he knows we can handle!” Agni insisted, “That way, little by little we’ll be climbing up the ladder!”

“We’re climbin’ it legit!” Joss insisted, “Also, by the way, Ah think your momma’s comin’ down.”

Agni stood up on the couch where she and Joss were talking to look behind it, seeing that, indeed, her mother and Kim coming down to the living room.

On her part, Shego felt… rather awkward. She had met the Possibles and been at Kimmie’s house several times, but she had never been at the Stoppables’ house nor had she ever met Ron’s parents. She waved her hand at anyone she made eye-contact with, preferring to keep it all short and simple. She didn’t have any reasons to speak with anyone but Kim and Agni, and she had already done half of that.

Upon noticing her daughter, Shego was just about to go to her. Her intentions, however, were interrupted when two persons came to greet her in a more personal manner than she would have hoped.

“Good evening, miss.” the blonde woman – Ron’s mother, she assumed – said while bowing before Shego.

“Nice to meet you.” the overweight short man accompanying her spoke, raising his hand to shake hers, “My name is Dan Stoppable.”

“S-Shego,” she replied while tentatively consenting to the shake.

“And I’m Mariam Stoppable.” his wife introduced herself, “We’ve heard a lot about you.”

The green thief raised a curious eyebrow.

“Can’t be very good,” she said between sarcasm and nervousness.

“Well, you’d be right…” Mariam agreed, “but we also know you’re Agni’s mother.”

It felt weird to hear people she didn’t even know talking about her daughter.

“And your daughter saved our little baby’s life.” Dan added.

_‘Oh, right!’_ Shego went on her mind, wanting to slap herself silly for not making this connection sooner. Of course Ron wasn’t going to be the _only_ one deeply thankful to Agni for saving that toddler.

“We’re so grateful to you…” Mariam spoke, taking Shego’s hands between her own and holding them tightly yet comfortingly between their chests, “You’ve raised a wonderful daughter…”

“I…” she began, but her words died in her mouth. _‘I didn’t RAISE her…!’_

“We know you’re not the most socially adept person in the world,” Dan followed, placing his hand on the green woman’s shoulder, “but we want you to know that, whenever you need it, Miss, no matter the reason… you’re always welcome in our house.”

Mariam nodded, and for a moment Shego was left mute, staring back and forth between the couple. Eventually she finally gathered her wits and nodded back.

“T-thank you,” she spoke, “you’re… really kind, but… right now, I need to speak with my daughter.”

“Oh, sorry to interrupt you.” the blonde mother apologized, letting go of Shego’s hand while Dan let go of her shoulder.

“Go ahead, please. Make yourself at home.” the overweight man added, stepping aside to let her pass.

Shego just headed for her daughter. Dan went back to the table and to his conversation with James. Mariam, for her part, watched the so called criminal woman as she awkwardly walked to her daughter and caressed the young girl’s wild hair, earning a playful complaint from her.

And _then_ she realized she wasn’t the only one contemplating such an event.

“Oh, Kim!” she exclaimed, slightly shaken that the redhead teenager had been standing just by her side and she didn’t immediately realize. “How are you doing?”

“Just fine.” Kim replied simply, turning to face the blonde woman, “Excuse me, but… have you seen Ron?”

“He’s in the kitchen, dear.” she replied.

“Thank you,” the redhead said before heading into said direction.

When Mariam returned to the table with her husband and James, Dan couldn’t help noticing there was something off with his wife.

“It’s everything okay, dear?”

“Well…” she began, her eyes then focusing on James, “Is everything okay with Kimberly?”

He blinked, apparently confused.

“She was just fine when we spoke this morning,” he replied, “even cheerful, I’d say.”

“Did she seem troubled to you?” Dan asked.

“Not _troubled_ , but more like… sad.”

James looked for his daughter around the house, barely catching her before she disappeared into the kitchen. He then focused back on Mariam.

“Think I should talk with her?”

But the blonde mother shook her head. “If she needs to talk… she’ll come around.”

“I sure hope so…” he replied, sounding slightly worried.

“Besides,” Mariam followed, “I think she may be dealing with whatever’s on her mind even as we speak…”

* * *

Monique, Wade and Ron were lively chatting in the kitchen as Ron prepared a second batch of cupcakes for the reunion. The guys were telling Monique details about the recent mission (which came up when she asked about his bruised face), or they’d be reminiscing of the older two’s days at high-school, when things weren’t… okay, they were weird, just not _this_ present day level of weirdness.

“Ron.”

All of them then turned to the direction of the voice’s source, surprised to find Kim unexpectedly close to them. How was it that no one heard her coming? And why did her voice sound so… ethereal?

“Yes, KP?”

“Can I have a moment alone with you?” she said with such neutrality and such null expression on her face that she might as well have been a robot.

This wasn’t a facet of her that Ron was unfamiliar with, though.

“Sure.” he said, leaving a tray of muffins on the table before heading for the backdoor, “C’mon.”

Without another word, both teens exited the kitchen and into the backyard. Neither spoke anything. They just sought a little privacy, and then faced one another. Kim’s eyes said to Ron everything that needed to be said, and slowly she covered the short distance between them. Her head was soon buried in his shoulder, as well as his arms around her.

_Thank you…_

_…always._

* * *

Agni couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Fucking forget Middletown High!” she exclaimed, “I wanna go to that Ninja school with you!”

Shego groaned in frustration. And here she thought, she _feared_ with all of her heart that her daughter would hate her for leaving her again, just for the only thing for Agni to care to be the ninja school! She had even kneeled before her daughter to talk this topic and now she felt stupid for it!

“I told you: No! No fucking way!”

“But why not!?”

Shego slapped her own face, shaking it in dismay. She then eyed Joss, who was sitting right beside Agni.

“You, the cowgirl!” she called, “Can’t you talk some sense into your friend!?”

“Actually…” she began, repeatedly eyeing both mother and daughter, “Uhm… can’t we both go?”

“Well said, Montana!” Agni spoke, raising her hand to high-five her friend, which the brunette eagerly agreed to.

“And here I thought Kimmie’s cousin would be your voice of reason.” Shego spoke, head dropping in dismay. With friends like this, Shego could only feel sorry for whatever intentions Kim might be holding for the sake of these girls’ wellbeing.

“So we’re going!?” Agni asked with a big, wide grin.

“For fuck’s sake, Agni!” her mother cursed, “Even if I could somehow get you girls in that school, the moment you set foot onto their grounds you’re already considered a member a viable agent to their mercenary business!”

“So, we do like Kim, but we get paid.” the green girl summed up, “I don’t see any problem there!”

“Ah ‘ven got scars to show off!” her friend added.

“We’re talking about murders and assassinations here!”

“…oh” went Joss.

“Alright, fine!” Agni finally replied, “Still, it’d be so much cool-”

“Thanks for your understanding!” Shego interrupted, not wanting to hear any more of it. “I’ll send you souvenirs.”

“How long will you be gone, though?” her daughter asked then.

Shego gulped, “I’m… not really sure.”

Agni’s expression seemed to drop. Joss bit her lips at the sight.

“Will you… will we stay in contact?”

Shego slowly opened her mouth to reply, but:

“You will.”

All heads turned to see Wade standing beside them. The short Afro-American boy approached them with Monique walking after him.

“I’ve been meaning to talk with you about this for a while now,” he said to Shego once he was right in front of her, “I was never sure of how to bring it up, though, but seeing the circumstances, I know it’s now or never.”

“First things first,” the green woman began.

“What am I talking about?” he finished for her.

“Wrong,” she replied with mean frown, “Were you spying on us?”

“That would be me,” Monique spoke, raising her hand with a sheepish smile on her face, “Guilty as charged.”

“You’re…” Shego began.

“Goldilocks’ hussy’s lesbian affair, chocolate edition.” Agni finished.

Joss chuckled, “Ah’ can’t tell wheneve’ you’re bein’ creative or tryin’ too hard.”

“I just heard you were leaving,” the Afro-American teenager clarified, “and… I wanted to make a difference for you and Agni.”

Shego frowned, “…why?”

Monique shrugged, “Why not?”

She sighing and shed her head.

“Okay, so what’s this difference you’re talking about?”

As a reply, Wade reached out for his pocket and brought a device Shego was familiar with, but that never expected to have offered to her.

“This…” she said as she took hold of the Kimmunicator.

“With this, you and Agni can stay in contact 24/7, no matter what corners of the world either of you are.” the boy told her.

“And you can track me down whenever you want.” she countered.

“I won’t.” he replied, his expression deadly serious, “I promise you, I won’t get involved in your life. Unless you use the S.O.S. function of it, I won’t even check the information brought back by the device.”

At that moment, Shego’s new toy suddenly began ringing a tune she knew she would be changing as soon as she could get a chance to. There was a call, curiously enough. She hit the replay button, only to be met with a slip screen showing the faces of Agni and Joss.

“What the-?”she spoke, turning around to see the girls in the couch with their respective Kimmunicators at hand.

“Seems pretty cool if ya ask me!” Agni spoke through the device.

“Not a bad offer.” Joss added.

“Sigh, fine!” the mother ultimately conceded to, ending the three-way call, “Just don’t abuse it. I can’t promise I’ll be answering every time you wanna tell me Kim didn’t make you chocolate m-OUCH!”

Giving her a mix of amusement, anger and even pride, the comment had earned her a not really menacing, but still hurtful kick from her daughter. Her mother simply rubbed her sore side with a huff.

“Heh, you’ve been taught well…”

“I’ve taught myself.” she replied with a prideful smirk.

Agni’s new Kimmunicator then beeped in her hand. The pre-teen checked what it was, only to find a text message that certainly caught her attention. The people around her saw her open her eyes in amazement, frown, think something through, and finally released a sigh that seemed to indicate a taken decision.

“I’ll be right back.” she said, standing up from the couch and walking away.

She only made it to the corner of the couch, though, before something got in her way and began crawling up her legs.

“Aunty Amy!” Hana called, reaching out for her babysitter.

Shego snorted, “Amy?”

“Shut up, _‘Tiny!_ ” her daughter replied.

“She wants ya to pick her up.” Joss told her, finding it amusing how the baby kept asking for that with her body language just for Agni to end up paralyzed at the sight of the toddler.

“…why me?!”

“She likes ya, _duh!_ ”

The green tween groaned, but nevertheless bent over and picked Hana up in her arms.

“Alright, let’s go, you lil’ devil…” she spoke as she placed the toddler against her chest and kept walking.

“Hey, Agni!” Ron commented as they crossed paths, “You taking my sister with you?”

“Unfortunately!” she replied without stopping. She entered the kitchen as the blond youth left it and soon was out of everyone’s sight.

Ron simply shrugged, knowing Hana couldn’t be in safer hands, and went to reunite with the group.

“Hey there,” he greeted.

“What was that all about?” Shego questioned.

He blinked, “What are you talking about?”

“My daughter.” she replied. “She’s with Kimmie, isn’t she?”

“Yeah,” he replied with a shrug, “they need to talk.”

She narrowed her eyes, “Alone?”

He nodded, “Alone.”

She kept staring at him for a moment, not certain whenever she was comfortable with this development or not.

“Didn’t you have your own private conversations with both of them?”

Shego tensed for a moment, but… she had to face that the buffoon had a point, as much as she hated to admit it.

“What does my cuz want with her?” Joss inquired. A part of Shego wanted to thank the brunette for asking what she felt she wouldn’t be allowed the right to ask.

“Well, Kim… she’s gotta do right by Agni.”

Shego blinked, “Do right?”

But Monique just chuckled, “That’s my girl…”

Nodding, Ron went on: “Yeah, do right. Actually… how about I tell you a story?”

* * *

**_Once upon a time, there was a little girl. A normal girl, you could say, but like every normal boy or girl in the world, there was something special about her. Something that defined her, something that made her unique, like everybody is unique in their own way, even if not everyone can show it._ **

**_But this little girl? Oh, she was going to show it. Yes, indeed. No sooner she learned about her talents and how could these be exploited, she wasted no time in sharing them with everyone she could. What was the point of her skills, after all, if she couldn’t share them with the world? - She would ask. So the little girl went around the world sharing her uniqueness with whoever might welcome it, and she actually made plenty of people happy with it! Well, not everyone. Some people did tend to reject her, but that didn’t stop the little girl from doing what she was best at._ **

**_Alas, among those who weren’t pleased with the little girl’s talents were included her own parents, nonetheless. They feared that their daughter would go too far, that like Icarus, she’d fly too high and burn her own wings. And of course, they feared she wouldn’t survive the fall. They had so much fear that they knew they couldn’t just let their little girl fly so freely. She needed some measures, they agreed. It was okay to exploit her talents, but only to a certain extent, they tried to make her understand. But the little girl wouldn’t agree, for she had seen what good her skills could do, and she refused to be any less than what she could be. Finding themselves cornered against their own panic, they tried to tie down their daughter’s wings, forbid her to fly…_ **

**_Yet all they managed was for their child to run away. The very wings they tried to restrain set her free from even them…_ **

**_And true to herself, that girl, slowly growing into a woman, kept on flying and being the very best of herself._ **

**_For the world…_ **

**_…for her friends…_ **

**_…and for everyone._ **

**_But even she knew that, deep down, she could not forsake her parents, or at least, she could not abandon her hope for their love. But was there still time? Or did she ruin everything when she ran away from them? She just knew… facing them now could hurt her more than ever. Did she dare? Was she brave enough? She sure as hell was brave enough to go around the world showing her true self to everyone, but could she face those that were closest to her?_ **

**_As days passed by, even though she kept on flying, her pain grew bigger and bigger… she knew she had to do something about it…_ **

* * *

“Hey…”

“Hey.”

“What are you doing here, sitting all by yourself?”

“Waiting for you, of course. But… why did you bring Hana?”

“She wanted to tag along. You don’t mind, right?”

“Of course not. Here… take a seat.”

“Alright… so, what did you wanna talk about?”

“You talked with your mother, right?”

“Yeah… she told me, so?”

“So… from here on, it’s gonna be mostly just us… us and the future.”

“What? You’re planning a change of arrangements now that we’re almost done moving?”

“No, not that. I just… I just want to make the best of our future days living together.”

“I suppose you’re gonna ask me to compromise to something?”

“Not at all.”

“Figures you’d-… wait, _what_?”

“There’s nothing for you to compromise. I… I’m the one who has to…”

“Wha-? But… _how?_ ”

“I suppose I gotta start from the begging… by apologizing to you.”

“ _…what?!_ ”

“I lied to you.”

“…”

“From day one, nonetheless… I promised you something, and ever since, I’ve been doing everything in my power to avoid it.”

“…my training.”

“Indeed.”

“…why?”

“Because I was scared.”

“ _Scared,_ y-you? …scared of WHAT?”

“That someday… everything I’d teach you would be used against me.”

“…I-”

“You’re a lot like your mother… and… every time I looked at you… I feared I might be raising someone that someday I’d have to fight.”

“…I guess that’s understandable.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Uh?”

“Don’t say _that!_ It’s not true!”

“But you just said-”

“I was _wrong!_ I… I was an idiot, a coward haunted by her own fears and childish traumas, I… I refused to look at you for _yourself_ , to realize that you’re _not_ your mother but your own person… and to recognize you as such.”

“…you’re…”

“An idiot, I know. So… I… I’m sorry.”

“…heh.”

“I’ll understand if you’re angry… I probably deserve at _least_ that, but… I want you to know I’m truly sorry, and… wait, what are you giggling for?”

“Pffft… can’t help it.”

“What’s so funny?”

“First… I wasn’t even gonna call you an idiot. You did that yourself…”

“That’s it?”

“It’s just… well, seems like I’m not the only one around with self-deprecation issues, uh?”

“Heh… I guess you’re right.”

“But also…”

“Mh?”

“I just… I never thought that you… of all people, you could be so…”

“So what?”

“So… so _human!_ ”

“…what?”

“I mean… I don’t think I ever knew this side of you, these fears and insecurities… and you just mentioned a childhood trauma, I can’t _believe_ you have a childhood trauma! This is priceless!”

“Heh… I guess, it is kinda funny if you put it like that, but… it’s the true.”

“Mh?”

“I’m human. I can do anything, but… I’m just human… and ‘anything’ does include making mistakes.”

“Wait, you’re not suggesting my powers make me any less human, are you?”

“Don’t be silly… I don’t know _anyone_ – who’s as human – as you are.”

“Well… wait, is that supposed to be flattery or what?”

“Hehe… take it however you want.”

“Mh, whatever, I guess…”

“Whatever?”

“You don’t need to apologize. I understand… you just did what you thought was the right thing to do. It’s what you always do, right?”

“Yes… but I was wrong this time.”

“Pff… let it go, alright? What’s the point of punishing yourself for it? I already accepted your apology.”

“It’s not that I wanna punish myself… it’s that I wanna make amends.”

“…amends?”

“Amends to you.”

* * *

**_The little girl knew: She had to face the people she cared about._ **

Before Agni could say or do anything about it, Kim got off the bench they were sitting on and kneeled before her. One knee on the ground and the other before her.

**_She had to do right._ **

“I will train you.” Kim declared.

“…what?”

“I’ll train you… like I promised I would.”

**_The little girl went to her loved ones, and with eyes that showed a maturity beyond her eyes, she stared straight at their faces and spoke with her heart._ **

“You… you mean it?”

“I swear to you: I will teach you _everything_ I know…”

She stared at the redhead in disbelief for a moment, but she knew from the seriousness in Kim’s eyes that she meant every word she was saying and that she may even be taking it far more seriously than Agni herself ever did.

“But _why_?”

**_This is me, the little girl told her family. This is who I am, she spoke with determination. And this is who I’ll always be…_ **

“When I arrived at the warehouse…” Kim began explaining, recalling the events from two days ago, “I saw you like… never before.”

Agni just stared in confusion waiting for the redhead to explain.

“When you saved Hana, and then shielded her and Joss, when I heard what you said… I… I knew what was going through your mind, and I… I’ve _never_ felt so humbled.”

_‘Humbled?’_ echoed in Agni’s mind as her eyes opened widely.

“Never before, in my entire life, had I felt… as proud of someone else, as I did with you.”

Agni had to make a conscious effort to keep on breathing. Her mind couldn’t believe the words that her guardian was speaking, yet her heart was confident that every word was as true as it could get.

“Not even from Ron, or my family… only from you, Agni.”

**_The parents understood then… what a blessing they had. What treasure they had been given, and how foolish they had been for attempting to keep it from shining. They understood there were risks to be taken, but that this was the only way they could ever, truly keep their loved one in their lives._ **

**_Parents and children embraced each others passionately, and a silent vow was made that day: To always accept and support each one’s best._ **

“That’s why… everything I know, everything I ever learned, now I finally know who I must pass it on to… and who I want to _share_ it with…” Kim went on, “Never thought… it’d be the daughter of my most feverish rival, but… who cares about that now! It’s you, Agni. It can’t be anyone else.”

She looked straight into the younger girl’s eyes, and Agni realized she was expected to reply now but… what was she even supposed to _say_ now!?

“C-cool!” she blurted out, “I-I mean, AWESOME! You… you finally come to your senses.”

Kim chuckled and nodded, “Guess I needed you to slap some sense into me.”

“Well, duh! You’d be lost without me!” the tween replied with a nervous laugh, but then suddenly fell serious, “Wait.”

“What’s wrong?”

“You… you’ll train Joss too, right?”

She actually saw doubt in Kim’s expression for a moment, but the redhead ultimately nodded.

“Of course,” she said, “I’m sure you two will make great sparring partners.”

“Great!” the girl celebrated, “Fucking awesome… I… I dunno what else to say.”

“Hehe, it’s okay.”

“Uhm… you didn’t tell Joss this yet, right?” she asked, even though she knew Kim obviously hadn’t.

“Nope, not yet.” the redhead answered simply, “Wanna go break the news?”

“Hell yeah!” Agni declared with a big smile.

“Alright,” Kim replied, finally standing up and then remembering the company they had, “Hey, is Hana…?”

Only then Agni remembered she happened to have a toddler on her lap. She has been so dumbfounded by what Kim had to tell her that she had completely forgotten it wasn’t just the two of them there, even though she had been holding the baby girl the whole time. Looking down at her, though, she guessed they might as well have been all alone and it wouldn’t have made any difference, since…

“Out like a light.” she spoke.

Kim giggled, “she must really like you.”

Agni just rolled her eyes, “What could I have ever done to deserve such punishment?”

Regardless, the young girl carefully readjusted Hana against her chest before standing up. The baby ended up with her head resting against Agni’s shoulder, but still as asleep as before.

“There you go, you lil’ devil…” she murmured, patting the toddler’s back.

The words barely registered in Kim’s head, though. The sight before her… she didn’t know what it was, but… she wasn’t even thinking when she spoke next.

“You’d be such a great mother…”

“What?” The girl asked, having honestly not caught what Kim whispered, “Did you say something ‘bout my mom?”

Suddenly brought back to reality and realizing what she had just said, Kim simply shook her head violently, wondering whatever the hell was going on with her.

“Nothing, though… I wonder what she might think of this.”

“Forget her,” Agni replied, turning to the direction of the Stoppable house, “I wanna see Montana’s reaction already, let’s go!”

She started walking towards the house, quickly but careful not to wake up Hana. Kim soon began following behind her, but almost as soon as she did, the girl suddenly stopped and turned around.

“And… Kim?”

“Yes?”

She took the deepest breath she ever did.

“…thank you.”

**_-Fin._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is the end of this long, long journey. Hope you people enjoyed it. Hopefully, there’ll be more adventures with these characters soon enough. ^^


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